Airports Company South Africa has suspended its chief information officer on precautionary grounds.
After initially denying misconduct in the multimillion-rand facial recognition tender, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) suspended its IT head on Thursday, acknowledging there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing in relation to the project.
ITWeb exposed in February that French multinational corporation IDEMIA is mired in a second tender dispute after being accused of holding dual status as “referee and player” in the contract with ACSA.
The issue stems from the implementation of biometric and facial recognition technologies, as well as e-gate systems to control passenger movement at airports.
ITWeb reported that IDEMIA, allegedly with the assistance of inside parties, secured the multimillion-rand, four-year contract, side-lining its empowerment partner, InfoVerge.
Both ACSA and IDEMIA denied any wrongdoing in the contract issuance, claiming all processes were followed correctly.
Following the ITWeb story, law firms representing the aggrieved party, InfoVerge Solutions, approached the courts, requesting that the contract be set aside.
InfoVerge Solutions stated it was initially part of this “landmark project, awarded to IDEMIA and InfoVerge as a 30% B-BBEE partner”.
Mounting evidence with no counter
Last Monday, ITWeb approached ACSA for comment on the following:
- Why did ACSA award the contract to IDEMIA and proceed with the implementation without a subcontractor, as per tender requirements?
- Given that the award for phase one is estimated at 12 months, IDEMIA signed a service level agreement in September 2023, meaning the implementation and delivery has been running for approximately 10 months. Therefore, what will be the role of the BEE subcontractor in phase one, with only two months or so remaining to achieve the 30% of R132 million?
- Why would IDEMIA pay the SMME 30% for phase one, having done nothing? If it did not pay, then how does it meet the 30% SMME participation?
The following day, ACSA responded: “ACSA followed a prudent procurement process in the awarding of the contract for the provision of an automated border control project, e-gates and a single token for a period of 60 months. All bids were evaluated in line with the requirements as set out in the request for proposal document, which can be accessed on this link.”
Preliminary probe
Two days later, ACSA placed its chief information officer (CIO) on precautionary suspension, effective Thursday, 8 August.
While ACSA’s statement does not name the CIO, ITWeb understands the incumbent is Mthoko Mncwabe, who was appointed in 2018.
In a late evening statement, ACSA said: “We have since undertaken a preliminary investigation and have now found there is prima facie evidence of wrongdoing in relation to the biometric and digital identity technology project.
“It is on this basis that the CIO has been placed on a precautionary suspension. The precautionary suspension is to allow ACSA to conduct further investigation and report back to the public on our findings.”
It added: “The contract required that at least 30% of the value be subcontracted to a South African, black-owned exempted micro enterprise (EME) and/or qualified small enterprise (QSE).
“As such, the winning bidder had a teaming agreement with a local company called InfoVerge as its black-owned EME/QSE partner (B-BBEE partner) for purposes of complying with EME/QSE requirements in the RFP [request for proposals].
“However, ACSA became aware of an impasse between the two business partners (IDEMIA and InfoVerge) and engaged both companies with a view to foster an amicable resolution in the interest of delivering on the contract. ACSA was satisfied that the two business partners would work together in the delivery of the required services.”
IDEMIA’s head office in France previously issued a statement, saying: “Compliance and transparency are top priorities for IDEMIA Public Security, which reaffirms its commitment to systematically align itself with the procedures and regulations of the states in which it operates, as is the case for South Africa.”
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