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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The five rival bidders who look set to be defeated include local technology players Datacentrix and Pinnacle.<\/p>\n
National Pride bid R15,5bn for the largest phase of the tender, covering supply, installation and maintenance of a facility to produce personalised cards.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
So each card will cost more than R300 to produce, compared with a global average of less than R50 each.<\/p>\n
The source asked why assessors conducted no site visits, and said National Pride had no reference sites to prove it could handle the work.<\/p>\n
The consortium lacked experience of systems integration, and might struggle to merge it with "several complex systems" used by home affairs.<\/p>\n
"It is ludicrous for the country to take a R15bn risk in this manner," he says. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
One of his gripes is that National Pride is 45% owned by Lefatshe Technology, which houses the former Sita staff.<\/p>\n
Ten percent is owned by Mohlaleng, yet those empowerment shareholders will conduct only 12% of the work.<\/p>\n
German group Muehlbauer holds 45%.<\/p>\n
Sita’s assessors say Muehlbauer has been involved in smart card projects in several countries.<\/p>\n
Sita spokeswoman Anthea Summers said the tender was still being adjudicated. No selection had been made.<\/p>\n
A recommendation committee would verify compliance, identify risks or gaps and do a due diligence.<\/p>\n
Only then "can a recommendation be made to the client, who then still has the authority to make the final decision".<\/p>\n
Sita procurement policies were designed to ensure their integrity, Summers said.<\/p>\n
The auditor-general had checked Sita’s tender processes, and found the selection panel contained people with the right skills mix.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The auditor-general was still checking the technical evaluations and scores awarded.<\/p>\n