COURT DECISIONS IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT: DELINEATING THE GREY ZONE

To remain effective within the public procurement proc-ess it is important to avoid revisions on contract award deci-sions, which prolong the procurement process and takes its toll on public resources. This paper aims to delineate the grey zone within public procurement legislation and clarify how the court interprets it, which will aid procurement officers in achieving best practice. Findings indicate a bias in favour of the procuring authority in terms of outcome of the court deci-sions through the use of a principle allowing for imperfect Re-quest for Tender (RFT) and evaluation models due to fluctua-tions in the economic sector. The findings show that some of the most litigious issues are flawed RFT, inconsistent RFT and award evaluation and a lack of clarity in the RFT and/or the procurement process.