New driving licence card disaster in South Africa

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage says he believes enough evidence has been presented to nullify South Africa’s awarding of the driver’s licence card account to Idemia.

This would delay the procurement of new driver’s licence card printers for South Africa.

Duvenage said during an interview with Cape Talk that transport minister Barbara Creecy believes the Auditor General’s findings following an investigation into the suspicious tender would be published by mid-January.

“The minister is going to look at the findings, and she has indicated that the department should have an answer to the way forward by the middle of January,” Duvenage said.

“We believe there is enough evidence to pull the plug on it and start again.”

This follows an extensive tendering process administered by the Department of Transport to replace its sole license card manufacturing machine, which the country should have done in 2009, according to a 2022 report.

Two years and three tenders later, in September 2024, the department awarded the contract to French company Idemia.

However, Outa, which had been gathering information about the tender for some time, noticed several irregularities in the bidding process.

It explained that when bidding for a tender, companies undergo three evaluations.

The first is to ensure they can adhere to the necessary administrative processes, such as having the required tax clearance, competency, and correct management structure.

Once bidders have passed this, their bid undergoes a technical evaluation where they are awarded points based on whether the contract is deemed technically feasible for the company.

Bidders need 24 out of 30 points to pass to the next stage.

Duvenage noted that many bidders were turned down at this phase despite having all the technical requirements to fulfil the bid, with proof of this in their submissions.

In the final phase, the adjudication panel reviews each bidder’s cost proposals, which should have been concealed until this point in the process.

However, Duvenage said many bidders who were disqualified following the technical evaluation had brought forward evidence that their pricing documents had been opened and tampered with.

“The driver’s licence card account (DLCA) was doing everything in its power to wear down and whittle out people in whichever way they could,” Duvenage said regarding Outa’s findings.

He said that the manipulation was a brazen attempt to ensure that the contract went to only one bidder and that the DLCA was doing everything in its power to wear down and whittle out people in any way it could.

There were also three price validity period extensions, which Outa highlighted was highly irregular and discouraged by Treasury’s procurement guidelines.

The price validity period tells the bidder how long their bid must remain valid, helping them to price their bids accordingly.

This led to transport minister Barbara Creecy announcing that the Auditor-General would investigate the tender for producing the new card.

“The Auditor-General has been requested to prioritise this audit process given the current backlog for driving license card applications and the parlous state of the current printing machine,” Creecy said in 2024.

Idemia said it supported Creecy’s announcement to extend the scope of the current audit.

“We are supporting the ministry in all transparency and with confidence to provide all necessary information to bring this audit to a fruitful completion,” it said.

Duvenage pointed out that while the printer is old and continues to break down, not legally awarding the tender soon means South Africa will continue to lag behind the rest of the world in terms of its licence’s security and technological features.