The National Lotteries Board's office was a hive of activity this morning as serious contenders for the R40 billion third National Lottery licence presented their bids to NLB Chairperson, Prof Alfred Nevhutanda.
“We can confirm that four (4) consortia paid their R2.5 million bid fee and have submitted the bid documents by the 10h00 deadline today,” said Prof Alfred Nevhutanda. “The Bid Evaluation Committee will now consider the submissions carefully before we make a recommendation to the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies.”
Professor Nevhutanda emphasised that the names of the bidding consortia will not be announced. He went on to say that the successful consortium will be announced at the end of August 2014.
The process for one of the largest tenders in South Africa began on 12 June 2013 when Minister Rob Davies published the notice of the Third Lottery Licence in the Government Gazette.
Following the announcement of Minister Davies, the NLB hosted a compulsory briefing session for all interested parties. The two-day briefing session was attended by about 120 business heavyweights all eager to learn more about this major South African tender that will ensure that the NLB continues to assist the thousands of worthy causes each year.
By the 31 July 2013 deadline, 18 interested parties purchased the Request for Proposal document at R50 000.00 per copy and began preparing their submissions for consideration.
The next step in the process was for the interested parties to submit their probity check forms together with declarations of interest. The NLB received information from 11 consortia.
Now that the bid submissions have been received, the process of evaluation will begin and will be completed by the end of May 2014; and the adjudication will be completed by the end of June 2014.
“In order to ensure the integrity of the process, we will have strict security measures in place. The entire process will also be audited by an independent panel of auditors by the end of July 2014,” said Prof Nevhutanda.
The announcement of the successful applicant will be made by Minister Davies on 31 August 2014 with the licence being signed on 31 October 2014.
On 1 June 2015, the new National Lottery licensee will commence operations.
Enquiries:
Sershan Naidoo, NLB Spokesperson
Tel: 012 432 1303
Mobile: 082 491 3304
E-mail: Sershan@nlb.org.za
