Trouble for new driving licences in South Africa
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has asked the Auditor General of South Africa to investigate the procurement process around the new driving licence printing machine for South Africa—with civil action group Outa calling for the entire process to be scrapped and restarted.
This follows the Department of Transport’s announcement on 1 September that it has appointed biometrics and cryptography group Idemia Identity and Security SA as the preferred bidder for the news smart licences.
However, Outa said that it met with Creecy this week over the tender and contract, raising several concerns about the procurement process, including claims that it may have been manipulated.
On Thursday (5 September), the minister said that the department has now requested the Auditor-General—who is currently undertaking an audit of the procurement process for the new driving license card—to widen the scope of the audit process and include an investigation into key issues.
These issues include whether supply chain management prescripts were followed to the letter; whether the specs for the project included adequate measures to protect the safety of personal data; and whether the bid chosen was the most affordable option, and why other service providers were not selected.
The other key issues revolve around the preferred bidder’s involvement with Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), which recently terminated its contracts with the group.
The Auditor-General has been requested to prioritize this audit process, given the current backlog for driving license card applications and the parlous state of the current printing machine.
Tender worries
According to Outa, it raised concerns around the Driving Licence Card Account’s (DLCA’s) decision to appoint the preferred bidder after what it described as an opaque and flawed tender process.
“Outa has for years repeatedly tried to get information from the DLCA and the department about the new driving licence card machine procurement process, but this has been refused.
“The department has also refused to make public details of the various tenders and related bidders, including the awarded contract value.”
The transport department has refuted the claims of not being transparent, and confirmed in an interview on Wednesday that the contract would be for a period of five years, at a value of R898 million, with the information freely available on the E-Tender platform.
The department also confirmed that there are ongoing investigations into the preferred bidder’s contracts with ACSA, which currently have no bearing on its own tender process.
“We are moving on the presumption of innocent until proven guilty. We will be guided by Treasury. Whatever happens with the investigations, Treasury, as the chief procurement officer, will guide us,” it said.
“We will await the report of the Auditor General as well. If the Auditor General says ‘wait there is a problem with this’, we will have to listen,” it said.
Troubled road
The procurement of a new card printing machine has been long and tumultuous.
The current printing machine is 26 years old and has had 159 breakdowns, leading to backlogs in processing cards.
Cabinet gave the go-ahead for a ‘turnkey solution’ related to the driving licences on 30 August 2022, and a bid for the procurement of a new printing machine was advertised on 10 November 2022.
However, this bid process was unsuccessful, resulting in a re-advertisement of the bid on 5 April 2023.
Idemia was one of the five bidders who put forward proposals. The bids were received from the following bidders:
- Ren-Form Corporate Print Media
- Nec Xon Systems (PTY) LTD
- Muehlbauer ID Services GMBH
- Gemalto Altron Fintech Southern Africa (PTY) LTD
- Idemia Identity and Security – South Africa
Following the minister’s announcement that the tender would be investigated, Outa called for the process to be scrapped entirely and restarted.
“This tender should be cancelled and reopened, with extremely robust oversight mechanisms in place,” said Duvenage.
BusinessTech contacted the Department of Transport for comment but did not receive response by the time of publishing.
Read: New driving licences in South Africa a big step closer
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