Sanral on the road to recovering lost money

Construction and engineering firm Group Five says it has received a single summons from Sanral related to the Senekal project.

Johannesburg - JSE-listed construction and engineering firm Group Five yesterday confirmed that it had received a single summons from the SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) related to the Senekal project.

The group earlier this week declined to comment after the agency said it had served civil damages claims with a total value of between R600 million and R760m against seven JSE-listed construction firms and joint ventures that had admitted to colluding on its tenders.

Sanral subsequently confirmed the summonses had been served against WBHO; Murray & Roberts (M&R); Concor, which merged with M&R in 2006; Group Five; Basil Read; Stefanutti Stocks; and Raubex.

Claim

M&R also confirmed that the group had received summonses from four road projects, including a R22m claim jointly and severally against M&R, Concor and Group Five, related to the Senekal Vaalpenspruit project.

Group Five said yesterday that its proportionate share of Sanral’s claim for this project was R7m. However, the company stressed that it disagreed with the allegations made by Sanral in the summons and intended to defend the claim.

M&R, Basil Read and Raubex previously confirmed that they would be defending the claims, while WBHO and Stefanutti Stocks failed to respond to a request for comment.

Sizwe Pamla, the national spokesman for Cosatu, said yesterday that the union federation welcomed and supported the decision by Sanral to lodge claims against the seven construction firms that were found guilty of collusive tendering by the Competition Commission.

“We feel that this action is long overdue and these companies have to be held responsible… for conning Sanral out of an estimated R760m,” he said.

Pamla said it was refreshing to see Sanral spending its energy and resources doing what was necessary instead of wasting money sending Gauteng motorists legal summons demanding they pay for e-tolls.

“If they had done this in 2013, they will have had the resources to invest in the roads infrastructure and help boost the economy by now. We hope Sanral can continue to focus on what is necessary and abandon the futile exercise of pursuing e-toll payments,” he said.

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