NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 2171
Mr A P van der Westhuizen (DA) to ask the Minister of Trade and Industry:
(1) Whether there was any external persons who served on the bid
evaluation panel when the Companies and Intellectual Property
Registration Office (Cipro) awarded the enterprise content management
(ECM) tender to ValorIT; if so, (a) who were these persons, (b) who
invited them to be part of the panel and (c) why;
(2) whether the use of external persons on a bid evaluation panel is in
line with the Supply Chain Management policy of Cipro; if not, why
not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3) what was the State Information Technology Agencyâs (Sita) involvement
in the bid process;
(4) why were the senior management staff members, who were implicated in
irregularities regarding the ECM tender of Cipro, not put on
precautionary suspension;
(5) why was the said company paid R77 million by Cipro from 1 March to 30
September 2009? NW2874E
REPLY:
(1) (a) The following external persons namely Messrs. Julius Segole,
Coltrane Nyathi and Shadrack Katuu served on the Cipro bid
evaluation panel to evaluate and award the ECM tender.
(b) Dr Michael Twum-Darko of Cipro contacted Mr. Phops Masiphe,
General Manager of SITA, to assist by identifying tender evaluators
for CIPRO's ECM tender. The following names were suggested by Mr.
Phops Masiphe:
⢠Ms Nikewe Momoti, Chief Information Officer of the OR Tambo
Municipality and former Director: Application Management at
Department of Home Affairs (DHA)
⢠Mr Zwaleke Sithole, Head of Communication Security at NIA, as
he has assessed Ciproâs network for vulnerability in the past
⢠Ms Portia Maluleke - IT Director of SAMAF and a former SITA
employee
⢠Mr Coltraine Nyathi, an Enterprise Content Management security
expert suggested by Mr Zwaleke Sithole, as he worked on the DHA
ECM architecture and solutionÂ
⢠Mr. Shadrack Katuu, Workflow and Document Management Specialist
employed by the Mandela Foundation. He was nominated by the
Chief Information Officer of the Presidency, but he declined the
invitation to assist due to a prior commitment
Furthermore, the Chief Information Officer of CIPRO contacted Mr.
Julius Segole, the chairperson of the Government Enterprise
Architecture Committee, a standing committee of the Government
Information Technology Officersâ Council (GITOC) with a request to
assist in the evaluation of CIPRO ECM tender. Mr Segole is also the
Chief Information Officer of the Dept of Social Services.
The names and contact details of the proposed panel members were
given to Ms Mary-Anne Wauts and Mr Peet Pienaar to interview and
determine their suitability for appointment as members to the bid
evaluation panel. Ms Wauts and Mr Pienaar were internal consultants
appointed by Cipro and employed to work on CIPROâs ICT at the time.
Subsequently they recommended to the Supply Chain Management of
Cipro that Messrs Julius Segole, Coltrane Nyathi and Shadrack Katuu
respectively be appointed as bid evaluation panel members.
(c) External persons were invited to sit on the bid evaluation panel
due to the complexity of the technical evaluation of this bid and
to ensure objectivity of the evaluation process. The specific
technical knowledge and expertise of the said individuals would
ensure the objectivity of the evaluation process.
(2) The Guide for Accounting Officers/Authorities, promulgated by the
National Treasury in February 2004 inter alia states that when it
is deemed necessary, independent experts may also be co-opted to a
bid evaluation/adjudication committee in an advisory capacity. Due
to the complexity of the technical evaluation of this bid and to
ensure objectivity in the evaluation process, Cipro has decided to
follow this process to invite independent experts to evaluate the
ECM tender.
(3) The draft Business Case was sent to SITA to be reviewed by SITA ECM
experts for comments. The reason being that SITA has designed the
transversal tender nr 384, as SITA is in the best position to
comment if Cipro has fully adhered to the requirements of the
transversal tender nr. 384 in terms of the content, process and
technology alignment.
SITA ensures that the procurement of ICT goods and services of
departments are concluded through the appropriate transversal
contracts by means of the competitive bidding process (in the best
interest of government). All government departments source their
ICT goods and services through the relevant SITA tenders. The
transversal tender nr. 384 is the one used to procure a service
provider for ECM.
(4) SMS members were not suspended as a precautionary measure, as no
member was implicated in irregularities regarding the ECM tender.
The draft forensic audit report published by the Auditor General
has confirmed that no SMS member of Cipro was implied in any way.
(5) Payments to the value of R 77 million were made on the completed
deliverables in terms of the signed service level agreement entered
into between Cipro and ValorIT during the period 1 March 2009 to 30
September 2009.