|
|
|
|
| National |
| SGS injunction ruling deferred |
|
by
Aubrey Mchulu, 11 June 2003
-
17:48:40
|
The High Court on Wednesday deferred to Thursday a ruling on an application by the Attorney General to have an injunction granted to Swiss pre-shipment inspection Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) discharged.
High Court Judge Dunstain Mwaungulu could not deliver the ruling as indicated on Tuesday because he was finalising it, according to a court clerk.
SGS cried foul over the award of the contract to Intertek Testing Services (ITS) claiming there were some irregularities in the award process and obtained an injunction stopping government from negotiating the contract with ITS or any other company until the issue had been reviewed.
But in another ruling on Tuesday on SGS’s application for a judicial review, Mwaungulu said the court is not a competent authority to question the Ministry of Finance’s decision to base the selection of a new pre-shipment inspection (PSI) provider on the cost implications.
“To impugn the Minister of Finance’s judgement on the cost implications of the scheme is delving on matters this court is unaccustomed and ill-equipped to do,” said Mwaungulu who said he was deciding the case based on “two heavily contested applications.”
Attorney General Peter Fachi is on record to have said government wants the case finalised before end June because it would lose a lot of revenue if there is no provider of pre-shipment inspection services after the expiry of the current contract with SGS.
Finance Minister Friday Jumbe said government expects to save up to K150 million in the new contract with ITS.
SGS’s contract to value imports valued at US$2,000 and above was extended from March to June 30, 2003.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
