ACSA makes about-turn on biometric system tender row, suspends top official

Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) has suspended its Chief Information Officer amid allegations of wrongdoing over a multi-million rand tender.

This follows a previous response from ACSA denying any wrongdoing in the tender process in response to an IOL story. However, in a statement released on Friday morning, ACSA says it conducted further investigation which prompted the suspension of its Chief Information Officer.

“On Saturday 3 August 2024, ACSA issued a media statement indicating that there were no allegations of irregularities regarding ACSA’s procurement processes in the current legal proceedings before the High Court.

“This was indeed true based on the information we had at the time and statements issued by those involved in the project. We have since undertaken a preliminary investigation and have now found that there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing in relation to the biometric and digital identity technology project.

“It is on this basis that the Chief Information Officer has been placed on a precautionary suspension.

“The precautionary suspension is to allow ACSA to conduct further investigation and report back to the public on our findings,” ACSA said.

The contract involves its biometric system awarded to French company IDEMIA and included local BEE firm, InfoVerge.

However, InfoVerge has taken both IDEMIA and ACSA to court after it was excluded from the contract once it was awarded to IDEMIA, the main contractor. InfoVerge has accused IDEMIA of reneging on an agreement and using InfoVerge's BEE criteria to clinch the R115 million contract and called on ACSA to halt the contract pending the legal outcome.

In its response, IDEMIA confirmed InfoVerge was included in the contract as its local BEE partner but denied any wrongdoing in the procurement process.

The legal battle continues before the courts.

IOL