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Councillors have started calling for a private consultant to oversee the bidding process in an effort to end the confusion and stop alleged corruption.
The developments come amid revelations that a number of people who wanted to bid for the tender were turned away by council officials who said the bidding process was closed.
Council had stated in the cancelled advertisement that bids would be accepted up to 28 March.
Confusion has characterised the tender since it was first advertised in 2010.
Mystery surrounds the lawsuit allegedly brought against the local authority by Megalithic, the company that was disqualified after winning the tender late last year.
Sources at the city council alleged that only the Town Clerk, Mr Middleton Nyoni, the chamber secretary, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou and a few people from the BCC legal section knew the contents of the lawsuit.
Councillors speculated that the lawsuit could be the major reason why the advertisement could have been cancelled.
“Like I said yesterday, I think council acted stupidly to advertise the tender before finishing with the lawsuit.
“Cancelling the advert soon after putting it in the paper shows that there is confusion and it can only happen when people do not know what they are doing. People should have confidence in their decisions to promote transparency,” said the councillor.
Another councillor said it was strange that everyone had heard about the lawsuit but no one knew the exact details.
“This court case seems to affect everything but councillors, as the policy makers do not know its details. When we ask about it, we are told that the legal section is handling the matter,” said a councillor.
Another councillor said council should hire a private consultant to oversee the tender process.
“The deputy mayor suggested in the last council meeting that a private consultant should be engaged. Although it will cost money, I think it is a better alternative to what we are facing. It is now easy to suspect that someone is benefiting from all this chaos because information about the exact state of things is scarce. We all have to wait and see, while we are all being painted with the brush of corruption for failing to conduct our affairs in an orderly transparent manner,” said a disgruntled councillor.
Two businessmen from Harare alleged that they were turned away by council officials when they tried to buy tender forms on Tuesday.
“We were shocked because we came to Bulawayo specifically to buy tender forms. The advert read that the closing date was 28 March. We do not know what is really happening here,” said one of the businessmen, in a telephone interview.
Mr Nyoni could not be reached for comment. He was not answering his mobile phone.
On Tuesday, he said council would only comment when the relevant departments had reached a position on the issue.
The council has been looking for a company to administer parking in the city and ensure order while earning maximum revenue.
The shambolic bidding process has brought the city’s tendering system under scrutiny, with accusations of corruption among councillors and directors flying around.
First, Easipark, the South African company that was favourite to clinch the parking deal, was disqualified on allegations of attempting to bribe members of the procurement board to swing the bid in its favour.
The company was readmitted and the tendering process re-done after consultations among stakeholders.
Easipark was disqualified again, after it failed to attend a compulsory tender briefing meeting.
Councillors then accused the deputy mayor, Clr Amen Mpofu, of championing the Easipark cause.
Megalithic, the company that eventually beat Grey Wolf to the tender, was disqualified at the last minute.
The company is now suing council in a bid to force it to nullify the disqualification and award it the tender.