Smart chip identity cards
A home affairs tender worth more than R16bn to produce smart chip identity cards for 48 million citizens may be awarded to a consortium housing former members of the body adjudicating the bid.
Two-thirds of the massive tender should be awarded to National Pride, according to a selection panel led by the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).
Yet National Pride members include former Sita director Noedene Isaacs-Mpulo and former chief information officer Vusi Magagula, along with several other former Sita staff, a disgruntled source says.
The source claims National Pride lacks experience to implement a smart ID card system, yet it beat world leaders in the technology, including Gemalto and Sagem.
The five rival bidders who look set to be defeated include local technology players Datacentrix and Pinnacle.
National Pride bid R15,5bn for the largest phase of the tender, covering supply, installation and maintenance of a facility to produce personalised cards.
While that was 10 times higher than the lowest bid of R1,5bn, and nearly three times higher than another, it was in line with three rival proposals.
So each card will cost more than R300 to produce, compared with a global average of less than R50 each.
The source asked why assessors conducted no site visits, and said National Pride had no reference sites to prove it could handle the work.
The consortium lacked experience of systems integration, and might struggle to merge it with "several complex systems" used by home affairs.
"It is ludicrous for the country to take a R15bn risk in this manner," he says.
A proposal that two phases of the tender go to National Pride and a far smaller third phase to French bidder Oberthur has been prepared by Sita’s sourcing specialist, Sandile Makhathini, for approval by a recommendation committee.
Documents held by the anonymous source include figures from the bids, and could be obtained only by a Sita or home affairs insider, not by a vengeful loser.
One of his gripes is that National Pride is 45% owned by Lefatshe Technology, which houses the former Sita staff.
Ten percent is owned by Mohlaleng, yet those empowerment shareholders will conduct only 12% of the work.
German group Muehlbauer holds 45%.
Sita’s assessors say Muehlbauer has been involved in smart card projects in several countries.
Sita spokeswoman Anthea Summers said the tender was still being adjudicated. No selection had been made.
A recommendation committee would verify compliance, identify risks or gaps and do a due diligence.
Only then "can a recommendation be made to the client, who then still has the authority to make the final decision".
Sita procurement policies were designed to ensure their integrity, Summers said.
The auditor-general had checked Sita’s tender processes, and found the selection panel contained people with the right skills mix.
But it was not given a list of staff who compiled the specifications and bid document, so it could not determine if any had links to the bidders.
The auditor-general was still checking the technical evaluations and scores awarded.
Smart chip identity cards discussion
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