The blocking will save taxpayers as much as R898.597 million, thanks to whistleblowers, OUTA, a responsive minister and the AGSA.
An OUTA investigation which identified irregularities in the massive driving licence card machine tender has resulted in legal action now being taken by the Ministry of Transport to block the tender award.
“This outcome is the direct result of effective civil intervention, when civil society organisations work responsibly with whistleblowers to build strong evidence-based cases that halt grossly overpriced and what is clearly a corrupt tender from being awarded. We also hope that those involved in the bid evaluation and adjudication process will be held accountable,” says OUTA CEO Wayne Duvenage.
Duvenage says OUTA is grateful that the Minister listened and took the matter further, as OUTA believes there is clear evidence of wrongdoing and this is outlined in the OUTA dossier provided to the Minister in September last year.
“Soon after that award was given, OUTA raised the flag with the Minister and also engaged with the Auditor-General to show where we believe the gross irregularities and tender manipulation had taken place. We are very grateful that the Minister agrees and is taking this matter through the courts to have this tender cancelled. More than that, we would like to see accountability against the perpetrators,” says Duvenage.
“It was so clear and obvious to us that this tender was manipulated.”
The procurement was managed by the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA), a state-owned entity under the Department of Transport which exists solely to produce driving licences. The DLCA was replacing its sole card machine, which has broken down repeatedly.
Today, 5 March 2024, Minister of Transport Barbary Creecy announced that she has ordered legal action to block the award.
“The Minister of Transport, Ms. Barbara Creecy has instructed her department to lodge a high court application for a declaratory order regarding the Driving License Card Machines tender found to have been irregular by the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA),” said the Department of Transport in a statement today. The department’s statement says the declaratory order is needed for guidance on the way forward.
This investigation was initiated in September last year, immediately after the award was announced and OUTA contacted the Minister, raised concerns about the tender process and award, and handed over a lengthy investigation report.
OUTA had followed the procurement process for more than two years, after following the problems with the driving licence card machine. The tender had repeatedly been advertised, withdrawn and readvertised. Last year, OUTA also received whistleblower documents with added to our concerns and were included in our dossier to the Minister.
The Minister listened, and handed the OUTA information to the AGSA for further investigation. The AGSA was already conducting a preliminary review of the award, and expanded this review after the Minister handed over the OUTA report.
Today the Minister, using the AGSA report, outlined some of the problems. She provided the executive summary of the AGSA report.
The OUTA dossier included concern that the contract price – which the department and DLCA had refused to specify – had ballooned from the DLCA’s budgeted R468 million to as much as R898.597 million. OUTA had already been investigating this tender for some time, after receiving information from whistleblowers.
The AGSA’s executive summary confirms receiving the OUTA report and investigating.
“On 5 September 2024, the auditor-general received a request from the minister of transport, Ms Barbara Creecy, MP, to audit allegations of tender process manipulation for the smart driver’s card machine at the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) and its parent department, the Department of Transport (DoT). This followed widespread public concern over the appointment of IDEMIA South Africa (IDEMIA) as the service provider. The minister’s communication was accompanied by a letter from the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA), in which specific allegations of an irregular procurement process were made,” says the AGSA report.
“Our audit of the DLCA’s SCM processes revealed irregularities in the tender evaluation. IDEMIA, the winning bidder, failed to meet key bid technical requirements,” says the AGSA report.
The AGSA report notes that the DLCA conducted a site visit during the procurement process, supposedly to confirm that the bidder had the required capability, but “the DLCA chose to inspect an unrelated machine”. The AGSA report extract does not say where this site visit was, but OUTA understands it was in Europe.
sweet bacon
Diary of an Englishman after he moves to South Africa….
**August 1**: Just got transferred with work from London, UK to our new home in Phalaborwa, Limpopo, South Africa. Now this is a town that knows how to live! Beautiful, sunny days and warm, balmy evenings. I watched the sunset from a deckchair by our pool yesterday. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my new home. I love it here.
**September 1:** Really heating up now. It got to 31 today. No problem though. Living in air-conditioned home, driving air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I’m turning into a sun-worshipper – no blasted rain like back in London! Had the back yard landscaped with tropical plants today. Lots of palms and rocks. No more mowing lawns for me! Another scorcher today, but I love it here. It’s Paradise !
**October 1:** The temperature hasn’t been below 35 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s windy though. Keeps the flies off a bit. Acclimatizing is taking longer than we expected. Fell asleep by the pool yesterday. Got third degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed three days off work. What a dumb thing to do. Got to respect the old sun in a climate like this!
**October 25:** This wind is a bastard. It feels like a giant fucking blow dryer. And it’s hot as hell! The home air conditioner is on the blink and the repair man charged R200 just to drive over and tell me he needs to order parts from @#$# Johannesburg. The wife & the kids are complaining.
**October 30:** The temperature’s up around 40 and the parts still haven’t arrived for the fucking air conditioner. House is an oven so we’ve all been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now. Bleeding R4 million house and we can’t even go inside. Why the hell did I ever come here?
**November 4:** Finally got the fucking air-conditioner fixed. It cost R1,500 and gets the temperature down to around 35 degrees. Stupid repairman. Fucking thief. If one more smart bastard says ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to fucking throttle him. Fucking heat! By the time I get to work, the car radiator is boiling over, my fucking clothes are soaking fucking wet and I smell like baked cat. Fucking place is the end of the Earth.
**November 9:** Tried to run some errands after work, wore shorts, and sat on the black leather upholstery in my car. I thought my fucking backside was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh, all the hair on the backs of my legs and off my fucking behind. Now the car smells like burnt hair, fried bum and baked cat. The Weather report might as well be a fucking recording – hot and sunny. Hot and sunny, Hot and fucking sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 bleeding months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Fuck!!
**November 15:** Doesn’t it ever rain in this darn place? Water restrictions will be next, so my R5,000 worth of palms might just dry up and blow into the fucking pool. The only things that thrive in this hell-hole are the fucking flies. You don’t dare open your mouth for fear of swallowing half a dozen of the little buzzards!
**November 20:** Welcome to HELL! It got to 45 degrees today. Now the air conditioner is gone in my car. The repair man came to fix it and said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I wanted to shove the car up his backside. Anyway, had to spend the R2,500 of the mortgage payment to bail me out of jail for assaulting the stupid fool. Fucking PHALABORWA! What kind of sick, demented idiot would want to live here!
**December 1:** WHAT!!!! The FIRST day of Summer!!!!
You are fucking kidding me, right?
senior smurf
Hayibo! – wow! [Hai-bo] Derived from the Zulu word meaning “definitely not!” This word is usually expressed on its own, at the start or end of a sentence when something seems astonishing.Example: “Hayibo! Ha! Ha! I can’t believe that!”