By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
French company IDEMIA has denied any wrongdoing in being awarded the R486 million tender to print new driving licence cards in South Africa.
IDEMIA landed the lucrative contract in September last year, after competing with Ren-form Corporate Print Media, NEC XON, Muehlbauer ID Services and Gemalto Altron Fintech Southern Africa.
The Auditor General South Africa (AGSA) audit of the Driving Licence Card Account’s (DLCA’s) supply chain management processes revealed irregularities in the tender evaluation. IDEMIA, the winning bidder, failed to meet key bid technical requirements, it found.
The DLCA is a state-owned entity under the Department of Transport, which exists solely to produce driving licences. The DLCA was attempting to replace its sole card machine, which has repeatedly broken down.
After releasing the AG’s findings, Transport minister Barbara Creecy instructed her department to approach the High Court for a declaratory order to cancel the driving licence tender awarded to Idemia.
“Idemia, the winning bidder, failed to meet key bid technical requirements,” the AGSA’s report noted.
It explained that other bidders were not unfairly disqualified as they also failed to meet the bid technical specifications.
“All bids submitted exceeded that R486 million budget set by the DLCA, indicating inadequate market analysis and budgeting,” the AGSA said.
“The DLCA used outdated pre-Covid prices, and the budget they submitted to cabinet for approval did not include all the costs for the contract, leading to cabinet approving a memo that was not a true reflection of the cost of the contract.”
It warned that if allowed to proceed at the original budget, there would have been a high risk of the project being delayed or cancelled due to insufficient funds.
The AGSA also identified instances of non-compliance with prescribed procurement processes.
“The non-compliances emanated from transgressions of SCM prescripts, rendering the procurement process irregular,” it said.
The Auditor-General also found that the bid evaluation committee had deviated from assessing the bids using the criteria set out in the tender’s specifications.
Idemia said in a statement to Fullview that it legitimately and lawfully won the tender.
“We believe we are the best in this field. We are fully committed to working hand in hand with the South African government to ensure that South Africans benefit from the most secure, reliable, and advanced driver’s licence solutions,” it said.
“The result of the audit carried out by the AGSA highlights irregularities that we take very seriously. While some of the findings pertain to matters beyond our scope, others directly concerning Idemia Smart Identity do not reflect the reality of our operations.”
It added that it is actively working to clarify these points and ensure a full understanding of the situation.
Last year, ACSA terminated the multimillion-rand contract, which had become embroiled in controversy after claims surfaced that IDEMIA secured the four-year deal with the help of insiders, side-lining its empowerment partner, InfoVerge, in the process.