initiated legal action<\/a><\/strong> to block the awarding of a contract for new printing driving licence printing machines following an investigation into the tendering process.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAmong the proposals under the new tender was procuring three driving licence card printing machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new machines would also be maintained and repaired in South Africa, unlike the current machines, which must be shipped overseas for repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Department of Transport has been advised that cancelling the smart card drivers\u2019 licence tender could exacerbate the backlog problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Advocate Adam Masombuka, the department\u2019s chief director of legal service, said cancelling the R500 million smart card driver\u2019s licence tender awarded to French company Idemia would have serious consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt will lead to an interdict and a protracted review legal process that can take years, compared with appointing the preferred bidder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outa also criticised this advice in its letter to the department and Minister Creecy, highlighting that, in principle, the tender cannot proceed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Outa is concerned over a recent legal opinion advising Minister Creecy to proceed with the driving licence card printing contract with Idemia,” the organisation said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is despite the fact that the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) found irregularities in the tender process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The AGSA report clearly stated that the winning bid was non-compliant with supply chain management prescripts, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Treasury Regulations and Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA) policies, amongst others.”\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Consequently, Minister Creecy has instructed the department to lodge a High Court application for a declaratory order to block the award of the tender.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cProceeding with the Idemia contract despite the auditor general\u2019s findings would be a serious governance failure,” said Duvenage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“If Idemia challenges the cancellation in court, Outa and possibly other tendering companies will not hesitate to oppose them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to recent reports, South Africa\u2019s current licence card printing machine is 26 years old and has experienced 159 breakdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outa has requested transparency and action and calls on Minister Creecy and the Department of Transport to urgently provide clarity on these three issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe believe these matters can no longer be ignored. The public deserves transparency on the government\u2019s plans to modernise the licensing system and address the backlog,” said Duvenage. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People wanting to renew their driver’s licence are likely to face significant delays in South Africa. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":819750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[853,22223,22224],"class_list":["post-819724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-south-africa","tag-the-department-of-transport","tag-the-organisation-undoing-tax-abuse-outa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819724"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819839,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819724\/revisions\/819839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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