Johannesburg — THE embattled Post Office has hit back in court papers at claims that yet another of its tenders is flawed and tainted by irregularities.

In its dispute with Cade Transport, which is asking the court to review the Post Office's decision to award a lucrative three-year contract to a company called Crossroads Distribution, the Post Office has dismissed the allegations as "simply unfounded".

In an affidavit signed by Nat Maelane, the Post Office executive for supply chain management, the parastatal claims that "the tender process was both transparent and equitable. The points-scoring exercise that was undertaken at the request-for-proposals stage (showed) that (Cade's) ability to (do the job) ... was inadequate and unsatisfactory relative to that of the selected preferred bidder."

The Post Office is under siege at the moment with suspect tenders tumbling out of the woodwork. Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri has stepped in to scrutinise deals concluded by the state-owned company.

The disputed Crossroads tender was awarded under suspended CEO Khutso Mampeule, who had taken former CEO and MTN MD Maanda Manyatshe to task over a tender awarded on his watch to marketing company Vision Design House.

The dispute with Cade could cost the Post Office about R240m if Cade claims damages.

Cade executive chairman Parmanathan Mariemuthu said in court papers the decision to appoint Crosswords "significantly undermines the promotion of black economic empowerment", as Cade had better empowerment credentials. He said he was "at a loss as to how this could have happened".

Cade scored the highest of all the bidders in an initial "expression-of-interest" phase of the tender, with 85%, while Crossroads was placed eighth with a score of 56%. But at the next "request-for-proposals" stage of the tender, Crossroads jumped to the head of the queue, and was picked for the contract. Crossroads bid R344m for the contract, while Cade says it bid a cheaper R240m.

The Post Office said the expression-of-interest phase was aimed at finding out "in general terms the ability of a service provider to provide transportation services". The request-for-proposals stage had a "different focus".

The Post Office said that Cade had problems, including "the limited size of (its) management team", and its "price per kilometre in relation to volume transported" was the most expensive. The Post Office said "the price tendered by (Cade) ... was approximately R13m higher than that of Crossroads".

Importantly, the Post Office denied Cade's claim that this decision was counterproductive for black economic empowerment. It said that Cade's bid lacked "sufficient clarity, and did not include all cost and benefit ramifications".

But a number of problems with Crossroads appeared to linger, including the fact that the contract was awarded "subject to further price negotiations ... and successful due diligence".

On Friday, Mariemuthu criticised the Post Office for not communicating properly.

"What has surprised us throughout the whole process is that the Post Office has never chosen to engage us, even before we went to court. Rather, they have always chosen to communicate with us through their lawyers, who are being paid for by the taxpayer."

Crossroads had even sourced equipment from Cade, he said.

Mariemuthu said: "We will fight this right to the end. If we stop fighting for business justice, what is the point of even having a constitution?"