MARIANNE MERTEN, Cape Town | Friday
AFTER numerous delays – including a probe into alleged tender improprieties, redrafted tender requirements and an escalation of costs from R800-million in 1996 to perhaps R3,5-billion – the first part of the Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis) is set for an official hand-over on Monday.
Minister of Home Affairs Mangosuthu Buthelezi this week announced the impending handover of the system by MarPless Communications Technologies to his department.
The intention is to transfer the paper and microfiche fingerprint records and identity details of some 40-million South Africans on to computer database.
Said a senior official: “For the first time we’ll be able to know who is in South Africa … We can clean duplications and organise [entries].” The searchable database, the official said, might be a world first.
According to ComputingSA, MarPless was formed in July 1993 as a joint venture company between the Japanese Marubeni Corporation and Plessey, which was subsequently bought by Dimension Data and empowerment company Worldwide African Investment Holdings.
A further element of the system, still to come, is the “smart” identity card to be issued to all South Africans and which will replace the current identity book.
The idea is that the card, which contains a micro chip, will enable other government departments like social development to piggy-back to facilitate the payment of, for example, pensions.
Private institutions like banks may also integrate with the system as the card will be able to act as an “electronic purse”.
In a turn-around from the original tender requirement of a bar-coded identity card, Cabinet approved the smart card in July 2001.
A Cabinet statement at the time said it would be phased in over five years and “also serve as a basis for integration of relevant government services as well as for possible utilisation in the existing banking infrastructure”.
However, it is understood that despite the potential to integrate several government service functions, no department has yet officially agreed to come on board, although some have expressed interest.
A commission under former president Nelson Mandela’s adviser Professor Fink Haysom is to issue its recommendations “to ensure the integrity of the tender process” of the smart card system by May.
The brief to Haysom and his co-commissioners Bernie Fanaroff and athlete-turned-adviser to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange Sidney Maree is to avoid allegations of corruption in the tender process. The card tender, after the controversial arms deal, will be one of government’s biggest tenders yet.
Haysom this week said the aim is to advise on the best way to acquire the appropriate technology for the best value – that preserving the security and integrity of information is a key aspect.
It is unlikely Hanis, including the smart card system, will be fully operational before 2006. It was originally scheduled for implementation last September.
Along with the delays, costs of the system to be paid in foreign currency have escalated.
The MarPless contract is estimated at more than R1-billion at today’s exchange rate; it was valued at R681 950 309 at February 1997.
In addition, the cost of the smart card might be as high as R2,5-billion.
Buthelezi used this figure in an answer in Parliament to Democratic Alliance MP Mike Waters.
In 1996 Cabinet approved approximately R800-million for the system.
The original contract was finally awarded to MarPless in November 1999 after a probe by the public protector into tender improprieties.
Initially nine consortiums applied for the Hanis tender.
Of these two were disqualified at the start for submitting irrelevant solutions – one allegedly was a cleaning company.
Unsuccessful bidders then queried the qualifications of those evaluating the tender.
The public protector, in a statement dated December 3 1998, said that home affairs “took proper and adequate steps to ensure a proper and effective evaluation of the tender”.
In addition the Public Protector made interim recommendations on the continuation of the tender process and advised that Cabinet should approve a successful bidder because of the cost implications.
Meanwhile, the South African Police Service will officially inaugurate next month its own automated fingerprinting system to capture records of some 4,6-million criminals or suspects.
Additional reporting by STEFAANS BRMMER