Council defends tender process

LISMORE Council has defended its tender process after yet another company criticised a lack of notification about upcoming contracts.

Melbourne-based Omega Chemicals, which has supplied the council with chemicals for the past 15 years, only found out it no longer had the contract on Wednesday when its sales manager Chris Turner enquired why it hadn’t received any orders.

He told The Northern Star that although three staff members were registered with the TenderLink website used by council, none had been notified of the call for tenders.

This was disputed by the council’s assets manager Scott Turner after checking notifications emailed by TenderLink.

He also said it was not council policy to independently inform incumbent providers about upcoming tenders as this might be perceived as favourable treatment.

The issue comes after councillors were told on Tuesday night that wrong information was provided to tenderers for the Koala Childcare Centre by Child Care Sales Australia that was appointed by council to assist the sale.

As a result, councillors decided to negotiate with all five tenderers, rather than only the three preferred parties nominated during the flawed tender process.