The Department of Transport is facing numerous questions regarding the R898 million smart driving licence cards tender awarded to Idemia.
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has asked the Auditor-General to widen the scope of its audit investigation into the R898 million tender awarded to the French tech company Idemia Identity and Security South Africa (Idemia).
Creecy has asked the AG to include an audit of the procurement process.
The decision comes as pressure was mounting on the Department of Transport to provide detailed explanation and reasons about why it issued the tender to the company which has recently had its R115 million Airports Company South Africa tender cancelled.
The Automobile Association (AA) said the issuing of the tender has raised more questions than answers in relation to the process to determine Idemia as the preferred bidder from a selection of five unknown candidates.
A lobby group has also made two Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) applications to obtain critical information regarding this procurement process, begging the question, who were the other unsuccessful bidders.
Recently, the winning bidder, Idemia recently had its R115m Acsa biometrics tender cancelled after much disagreement between the company and a local BEE partner, InfoVerge.
Acsa eventually cancelled the contract after the two companies got into a fierce dispute, with InfoVerge approaching the courts, claiming Idemia had excluded it from the contract after the tender was secured.
This week, a department spokesperson has said the company had not been blacklisted and the awarding of the tender was reportedly above board.
However, Creecy has now asked the A-G to determine if:
– the supply chain management prescripts were followed to the letter;
– whether the specs for the project included adequate measures to protect the safety of personal data given the sensitivity of information and security features involved in this project;
– the implications for this procurement process of the recent cancellation by Acsa of a contract that was awarded to Idemia due to a contractual dispute between Idemia and its BBBEE partner InfoVerge;
– Whether Idemia's technical capacity and timeous delivery were adequately considered in the tender process following allegations of challenges at three Airports where IDEMIA's Biometrics system was contracted by the Border Management Authority;
– Whether other South African service providers tendered, including service providers contracted by the Government Printing Works? And why were they not selected?
– Was the chosen bidder the most affordable option?
“The Auditor-General has been requested to prioritize this audit process given the current backlog for driving license card applications and the parlous state of the current printing machine,” said Creecy.
Creecy’s intervention comes after she reportedly met earlier this week with the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa).
This week, Idemia told IOL it was capable of carrying out the drivers licence printing tender.
“Idemia is a global leader in physical and digital identity solutions, trusted by governments around the world for our proven expertise and innovation,” the company said.
They said they had put a bid to contribute to the South African drivers license printing programme that would deliver the best fraud resistant drivers licenses.
The AA this week also posed an ultimatum to the Transport department, to either answer their questions or face continued criticism.
The AA said it wanted to know about the time-frames for the roll-out of the new drivers licence smart cards, and the reason why “Idemia was selected“ for the project.
The AA added that despite these questions the more pressing issue was the need for a physical driver’s license cards.
“We have seen the digitisation of many functions in both the private and public sector – the functioning of the SA Revenue Service is a good example.
“We must question why the digitisation of license cards is not top of the agenda at the DoT; the ability to manage driving licenses through fingerprints would, in our view, be more appropriate and more secure, especially given the rate of forgery of physical cards,” the AA said in a statement.
The AA said it plans to raise questions on the appointment of Idemia through formal communication with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport as well as with other bodies such as the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), and the Auditor-General.
Meanwhile, AfriForum has also submitted two Paia applications to the department to obtain critical information regarding the procurement process.
According to Louis Boshoff, AfriForum’s campaign officer, “Transparency is of crucial importance in the Department of Transport’s decision-making process, as South Africans have long been fed up with the backlog in service delivery,”
AfriForum has instructed its legal team to study all documents that are delivered to AfriForum through their Paia application.
IOL