A forensic investigation has uncovered irregularities in the awarding of a R1.2 billion tender by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
The tender was for the maintenance and expansion of local area network (LAN) services in Western Cape schools, as the provincial Department of Education wanted to enhance LAN infrastructure to sustain and advance existing network facilities.
Law firm Cliff Dekker Hofmeyer (CDH), which conducted the investigation at the behest of SITA, briefed Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies on the report findings on Friday.
Tendai Jangara, director and lead of the corporate investigations team at CDH, told the portfolio committee that given it was an agency transaction, it meant two parties were involved in the process: SITA officials and Western Cape Department of Education officials.
Out of the bid responses received, BNC (Blue Networks and Infrastructure) was recommended as the successful bidder.
CDH established four irregularities after looking at the process from its initiation stage until its completion – the point where a recommendation to award was made. Its analysis was of all the parties involved and their respective roles.
The identified irregularities are: an alternative solution and two pricing options, local content, disqualification of Dimension Data, and board round robin process for approving recommendation for award.
On the first, Jangara said prospective bidders questioned whether they could provide an alternative solution to the current Xirrus. The bidders wanted to know if the solution could be something comparable, or interoperable with Xirrus.
She explained: “As a result of the above-mentioned question, one bidder provided two pricing options in one bid. The practical implication of that is that upon looking at what the bidder had submitted, they had submitted one bid set of documents which pertained to their bid except at the pricing stage. When it got to the pricing stage, they then had two options presented to the evaluators.
“Their tender at pricing contained two options that could be considered – for the Xirrus solution and the other a Huawei option. But the options were all in one bid proposal – it was only at the pricing that they had separate documents.”
In its presentation to Parliament, CDH noted: “The ambiguity of and lack of provision that allowed bidders to submit more than one price option was exacerbated by the RFB also being silent on the manner and process that must be followed by bidders who submit more than one pricing option and how SITA would evaluate the different options.
“The RFB required bidders to submit SBD3.1 forms together with the pricing schedules; it did not state that a bidder may be disqualified because of an incomplete SBD3.1.
“The decision to evaluate both price proposals submitted by BNC rendered the tender process unfair, since the RFB was unclear on whether bidders were allowed to submit more than one pricing option.
“The process and award of the tender RFB 2556 – 2022 was, therefore, unfair and uncompetitive as the bidders were not evaluated on an equal footing.”
According to CDH, it was instructed by SITA to conduct a forensic investigation into allegations of tender irregularities at the request of predecessor minister – now deputy minister – Mondli Gungubele, in July 2023. Gungubele’s request was submitted by a letter received by the portfolio committee in the sixth Parliament.
This, after one of the unsuccessful bidders − Sizwe Africa IT Group − alleged that based on the SITA internal audit report of the adjudication process, all the bidders did not comply with the local content requirements, as per the Preferential Procurement Regulations.
The committee requested the minister to provide a full response to the allegation, after which Gungubele communicated the allegations to SITA. It was later resolved to appoint a legal firm to perform an independent investigation and provide a legal opinion. CDH began its investigation after receiving the brief on 1 August 2023.
Missteps identified
The tender required bidders to confirm compliance with the local content requirements by completing the Declaration Certificate for Local Production and Content for Designated sectors.
Only three bidders complied with the requirement, which was not vague or ambiguous, according to the briefing document.
“Other bidders declared the local content of the electrical cables, together with other non-designated products used in the project, which were not supposed to be declared. This resulted in a local content percentage which was lower than the prescribed minimum of 90%.”
Dimension Data was disqualified at stage 2a “based on a failure to comply with requirement for the submission of Microsoft certificate and/or letter of accreditation because the submitted Microsoft certification was issued under the name of the NTT Group, which is the parent company of Dimension Data”.
Based on its findings, CDH made the following recommendations:
- The SITA board re-evaluate its decision to recommend the award of the tender.
- If the SITA board agrees with the conclusion and elects to re-evaluate its decision, the board should inform the Western Cape education department of the material irregularities which tainted the process and that such irregularities, in SITA's view, necessitate a self-review application to declare the tender process unfair and invalid, and set aside the award to BNC.
- SITA adjudication committees must not engage in actions which seek to alter the submissions of bidders to avoid disqualification of non-compliant bidders, as occurred when the hybrid method of evaluating local content was devised and utilised.
- SITA board members must ensure they fully engage with procurement processes due to the value of the bids on which they are required to make decisions.
- The board that made the decision to recommend the award must, therefore, be held accountable.
- The company secretariat must be held accountable for the round robin irregularity.
- The company secretariat and executive: SCM must be held accountable for communicating the recommendation before ratification of the resolution by the board.
- SITA must ensure all tenders are drafted in clear and unambiguous language to ensure bidders are provided with equal opportunity to respond to bids, and the adjudication process is fair and not subject to allegations of irregular adjudication processes.
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