National IDs project tender
process: Minister locks
State House Chief Secretary Philemon Luhanjo,(Top)
and Home Affairs Minister Lawrence Masha.
-Prime Minister Pinda asked to intervene
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
THISDAY REPORTER
Dar es Salaam
HOME Affairs Minister Lawrence Masha is reported to have clashed head-on with State House Chief Secretary Philemon Luhanjo over the ongoing tender process for the $152m (approx. 200bn/-) national identity cards project.
And well-placed sources confirm that the minister has officially brought the matter to the attention of the Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, and other top government leaders.
It is understood that the home affairs ministerial tender board had initially sought to float a restricted tender, but the government ordered the tender process to be made public to avoid loopholes for corruption and other wrongdoings.
According to the sources, Masha made a formal complaint to Pinda that Luhanjo instructed the permanent secretary in the home affairs ministry to submit a report to the ministerial cabinet on the implementation of the tender process without informing him (Masha) as minister.
An informed source told THISDAY: ’’The minister believes that the chief secretary should have involved him in the matter out of courtesy, instead of just communicating with the permanent secretary.’’
’’Sometime in December last year, he (the minister) decided to officially notify the prime minister that he was not satisfied with the way the tender process was being handled.’’
’’The minister told the prime minister that he was compelled to complain about the tender process out of political responsibility, although he acknowledged having no legal authority to intervene in the matter.’’
The chief secretary, who operates from State House, is secretary to the Cabinet and responsible for ensuring that all important government decisions are implemented.
However, it now transpires that Masha was apparently not amused by CS Luhanjo’s decision to instruct the Home Affairs PS to report straight to the Cabinet about the tender process.
It is understood that the minister’s argument was that he would be the one forced to shoulder political responsibility should anything go wrong within the ministry.
The sources say Masha also told Premier Pinda that he had received complaints from one of the bidders for the lucrative national IDs tender, SAGEM SECURITE of France, and subsequently summoned the Home Affairs PS to Dodoma last November for discussions on the matter.
According to the sources: ’’Apparently, he (Masha) was not happy with the way the preliminary evaluation of the tender was conducted, after some of the bidders were uplifted and given conditional pre-qualification, while others with similar qualifications were left out.’’
The sources further hinted that the minister told Pinda of a spreading ’notion’ that he (Masha) was personally favouring the French company to be awarded the tender, because he had decided to act on the company’s complaints after it was not short-listed.
A total of 54 companies initially tabled bids for the tender to supply a national identification, system-based, Smartcard technology, and a special government evaluation committee then picked 21 of the bidders for the pre-qualification stage.
Out of these, 16 bidders were found to be ’substantially responsive’, while five bidders were given ’conditional pre-qualification.’ The tender board later came up with a shortlist of eight companies, excluding SAGEM SECURITE, out of those recommended by the evaluation committee.
According to officials close to the national IDs project tender process, minister Masha apparently feels that a number of mistakes were made by the evaluation committee, and that all 21 initial bids (including SAGEM SECURITE) should be evaluated by the tender board.
The multi-billion shilling project is understood to have attracted the interest of quite a number of local politicians-cum-businessmen, said to be eagerly waiting to pounce on the deal.
Sources say there has been remarkable behind-the-scenes lobbying by some of the bidding companies to land the contract.
courtsey of ThisDAY online
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