Visit Knysna is pleased to announce that Fijnbosch Coffee Shop has been awarded a contract to partner with us in providing local tourism information in Sedgefield.
Colleen Durant, General Manager of Visit Knysna said: “we are extremely excited about this new contract to deliver local tourism information of the highest standard on behalf of the community”. The contract is initially for 12 months, and Visit Knysna will ensure the service levels required by the town, and by the municipality, are adhered to.
Fijnbosch Coffee Shop is located at 31 Main Service Road which is in the middle of the business area and an ideal location for foot traffic.
The contract was awarded following a rigorous process.
- Initially, a Request for Proposals (RFP) was issued for the Sedgefield Tourism Office, and a tender process followed. This was done as we believe it was the most transparent process to follow and in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act that needed to be adhered to.
- Adverts were placed locally and local suppliers particularly were encouraged to apply. Two proposals were received but unfortunately, neither proposal had the relevant compliance documents attached. Further requests were made to the applicants and an extended deadline given, but compliance could not be met.
- In light of this, the evaluation committee stopped the process, and it was decided to change the scope of a smaller and more manageable concept.
- A Request for Quotations (RFQ) was therefore drafted, and the original applicants were encouraged to apply and for transparency, the RFQ was also published on the e-Tender platform.
- On 27 June, a bid committee made up of senior staff from Wesgro and Visit Knysna convened to review and discuss each of the proposals received. Their task was to:
- Ensure that the correct information had been submitted in terms of the requirements of the PFMA process
- Ensure that the requirements of the RFQ were properly understood and could be met by the bidders
- Review and compare the proposed costs
- The price was calculated according to the 80/20 BEE Level contribution. The cost aspect was calculated for the full costs, which included the monthly cost for 12 months as well as start-up costs.
- The points for each proposal were calculated and the highest scorer was the proposal submitted by the Fijnbosch Coffee Shop.
- The Committee agreed that not only was the proposal submitted by the local Coffee Shop the most cost-effective, it also showed the best understanding of the requirements of the project and met all of the relevant requirements.
- Fijnbosch Coffee Shop demonstrated that they have the required experience and space to be able to meet the need for the satellite tourism outlet at a very competitive monthly cost.
Durant commented further to say that she is “very happy to have finally reached this point of appointment for a satellite office in Sedgefield. As we will work closely with the stakeholders in the Sedgefield community, tourism can now be the winner. Fijnbosch will be an outlet for information on behalf of Visit Knysna and the products in the vicinity, whilst also being a platform for collating statistics. The staff will be expected to work hand in hand with the main office and we welcome their interaction and support”.