Minister of Transport takes legal action after OUTA reveals bid manipulation and inflated costs. Auditor-General confirms irregularities, including a rigged site visit.

An OUTA investigation uncovered irregularities in the massive driving licence card machine tender, leading to legal action by the Ministry of Transport to block the award.

CEO Wayne Duvenage says this outcome again proves the power of civil intervention.  OUTA acted on information received from whistleblowers and provided a dossier with evidence to the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, in September 2023. This was shortly after the contract was awarded, and we shared our concerns that the tender was manipulated with the Auditor-General as well.  

The procurement, managed by the Driving Licence Card Account (DLCA), aimed to replace a repeatedly failing card machine. The contract price had escalated from R468 million to nearly R899 million.

On 5 March 2024, Minister Barbara Creecy announced legal action to block the award, instructing her department to seek a high court declaratory order regarding the irregular tender.

Following the Minister’s request, the Auditor-General's report confirmed tender irregularities. It found that the winning bidder, IDEMIA, failed to meet key technical requirements. During the procurement process, the DLCA also conducted a site visit to assess the bidder’s capability but inspected an unrelated machine in Europe.

Duvenage says OUTA is grateful that the Minister listened and took the matter further. “We also wish to thank the whistleblowers and our supporters for making our work possible.

Read the full press release here

OUTA’s statement in September, outlining the information provided to Minister Creecy, is here.

The Department of Transport statement from the Minister is here and the executive summary from the AGSA report is here.

More on OUTA’s criticism of the failure to procure the driving licence card machine is here.