The department of home affairs has spent more than 400 million of taxpayers’ money on a contract to upgrade its population register system, an upgrade that has still not been done.
Also Read: Home Affairs set to open branches in malls – here’s where
EOH Holdings was paid R300 million in 2017 to upgrade the Home Affairs National Information System (Hanis) to the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), the department then paid a further R150 million to a second company, Idemia, when EOH Holdings failed to deliver on the upgrade, but Idemia has also not done the work required to upgrade the system.
A further R200 million was spent by the department of home affairs on hardware and software, which is water down the drain as those warranties and licenses are going to expire in the coming weeks.
In a statement to City Press, the department expressed that there was no reason to believe that EOH was not capable of performing the upgrade at the time that the contract was awarded to them.
“During the course of the forensic investigation, EOH announced that it was pulling out of all the contracts it had with the state, including this one. Because a lot of time was already lost, the department accepted the ceding of the contract to Idemia so that we don’t start from scratch because the system is urgently needed,” the department said.
It also confirmed paying R280 million.
“We deny that we paid between R300 million and R400 million. The contract, as awarded by the SITA, was worth R409 million. At the time EOH moved out of the contract, they had already purchased hardware for R113 383 482.12; software for R110 972 282.72; and also provided services worth R56 521 710.91. As you can see, the total is R280 877 475.75. This is what we paid for.”
EOH was awarded the contract in 2017 by the department and State Information Technology Agency (SITA) the company that procures all Information and technology products and services for government departments. Talk that the bidding process was rigged and described as “corruption infested” led the department to appoint Nexia SAB&T, a forensic auditing firm in 2019 to investigate the tender process and outcome thereof. The audit proved that EOH and the SITA’s officials had allegedly rigged the bidding process to ensure that the politically connected company landed the lucrative contract.
As per City Press, the Department of Home Affairs has confirmed an investigation is underway.
Also Read:
Video: Home Affairs plans to reinstate transit visas after foreign nationals illegally enter SA
Picture: Unsplash