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Dear Editor During a session in the National Assembly this week, I asked the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, whether he would commit to an open investigation into the continued employment of family members of former Crime Intelligence head, Richard Mdluli, in SAPS. The Minister immediately agreed and confirmed that he would cooperate with the …
Dear Editor The DA calls on Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth to immediately fire nine senior officials of the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) who have been found by the SIU to have awarded an over R6 million tender without a competitive process, as required by law. The SIU investigation into these nine senior officials of the …
Dear Editor The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng welcomes help that will improve the lives of our people. When a State of Disaster is declared, it allows the National Executive to intervene more closely, with special funding for incidents like the recent devastating floods across South Africa. Given Gauteng’s long and deeply criminal history when …
Dear Editor The DA urges Transport Minister Barbara Creecy to publicly disclose the full details regarding the irregularities in the driving license card machines tender as she takes the matter to court. The Auditor General’s (AG) full report on this issue has not been made public, and without its release, the root cause of the …
Dear Editor The DA calls for the swift investigation and prosecution of 6,000 more State employees, found by the Special Investigations Unit to have unlawfully received the special Temporary Employment Relief grant during the COVID-19 Pandemic, while simultaneously receiving their government salary or remuneration. An amount of R350 million is believed to have been stolen …
Dear Editor While the DA welcomes the successful private prosecution by AfriForum on a common assault case that the NPA declined to prosecute, this outcome is an indictment on the NPA, which is now failing to do even the simplest part of their job. After the NPA failed to take forward a matter of assault, …
Today, the Western Cape Government received 71 title deeds from First National Bank (FNB), as part of the housing subsidy initiative for financially distressed customers. This initiative is a collaboration between the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure, FNB, DTB Incorporated; and is run under the careful supervision of Project Manager Deon Van Deventer. The project …
Dear Editor The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the swift and proactive response from the Western Cape Government to the sudden and devastating halt of USAID funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the province, particularly those working on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) prevention and care. We applaud the commitment to safeguarding healthcare services, especially for the …
Dept seeks declaratory order for irregular tender for Driving Licence Card Machine
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has instructed her department to lodge a high court application for a declaratory order regarding the Driving Licence Card Machine (DLCM) tender found to have been irregular by the Auditor-General South Africa (AGSA).
The department on Wednesday said the declaratory order is being sought to get guidance on how to proceed, given the findings of the AGSA audit report.
In September last year, the Minister requested the AGSA, who at the time was undertaking an audit of the procurement process for the new DLCM, to widen the scope of the audit process to include whether Supply Chain Management (SCM) prescripts were followed to the letter, and if the specs of the project included adequate measure to protect the safety of personal data, given the sensitivity of information and security features involved in this project.
The AGSA identified instances of non-compliance with the required procurement processes.
“The non-compliances emanated from transgressions of SCM prescripts (Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Treasury Regulations and Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) SCM policies, rendering the procurement process irregular,” the Department of Transport said on Wednesday.
The AGSA audit of the DLCA SCM processes revealed irregularities in the tender evaluation.
IDEMIA, the winning bidder, failed to meet key bid technical requirements. Additionally, the AGSA review confirmed that the other bidders were not unfairly disqualified, as they also did not meet the bid technical specifications.
All bids submitted exceeded the R486 385 million budget set by the DLCA, indicating inadequate market analysis and budgeting.
The AGSA found that the DLCA used outdated pre-COVID-19 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.
"This poses the risk of the project being delayed or cancelled due to insufficient funds," the AGSA said in its report.
The AGSA also noted that the bid specifications included an adequate assessment of the ability of the system to protect personal data. All bidders were evaluated on this criterion, and some were responsive.
According to the AGSA, the Bid Evaluation Committee (BEC) deviated from assessing the bids using the exact criteria set out in the bid specifications when evaluating documents provided by bidders.
“The BEC members had to use their judgement and make executive decisions on how to assess the bids due to ambiguous bid specifications, which did not clearly address the DLCA requirements. This ambiguity led to discrepancies identified by the AGSA, resulting in an unfair and non-transparent procurement process.
“The inconsistencies extended beyond technical evaluation to site visits conducted by the DLCA. During these visits, the DLCA was supposed to confirm that the MX8100 machine proposed by the bidder, IDEMIA, had the required capacity and capability to deliver on the requirements. The DLCA chose to inspect an unrelated machine”.
The AGSA said the deviation from the bid specifications and the use of ambiguous criteria undermined the fairness and transparency of the procurement process.
“It is on the basis of the above that the department is in no position to turn a blind eye on the findings of the AGSA that points to irregularities in the tender process and the transgressions of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
“In terms of section 81 (1) of the PFMA, an accounting officer for a department or a constitutional institution commits an act of financial misconduct if that accounting officer wilfully or negligently... makes or permits an unauthorised expenditure, an irregular expenditure, or a fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
“Consequently, Minister Creecy has instructed the department to lodge a high court application for a declaratory order for guidance on how to proceed, given the AGSA audit report,” the department said. - SAnews.gov.za
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Thu, 03/06/2025 - 09:21
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Dear Editor The Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng has written to the Public Protector to request an urgent investigation into the suspicious payment of over R1.8 billion to Matthew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance (MGSLG) by the Gauteng Department of Education (GDE). The DA recently discovered, through a response from the MEC for Education, Matome …
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