A source in the World Bank office in Mozambique confirmed to AIM that a delegation had indeed come to Mozambique to deal with the matter, but declined to give any details.
The tender, financed by the World Bank, was launched in June 2006, and three companies made bids for the contract - Brithol Michcoma of Mozambique, Face Technologies of South Africa, and a Portuguese company that was disqualified when it did not produce a banker's guarantees.
The closing date of the tender was 6 July, and on 16 August, Brithol Michcoma, having discovered that its South African competitor had won, sent a letter to ANE demanding an explanation. Why should the company asking for twice as much as Brithol Michcoma be awarded the contract ?
ANE replied that in fact no winner had yet been chosen, and that none of the bidders would have access to any information related to the tender, until the publication of the tender result. Those were the rules of the game.
In November, the ANE informed the bidders that the deadline for announcing the result had been extended by a further 55 days.
It claimed again that no decision had yet been taken.
"That's strange, because we had information that the winning company was informed by a letter dated 6 August", said Haitham Elsiddiq, director of Brithol Michcoma. "But we believed them because we thought that they had reassessed the tender".
The expanded deadline ran to 27 December, but now, over two months later, the ANE has still not formally announced the winner.
"To our surprise, when we contacted the World Bank, it confirmed that the contract between the ANE and the winning bidder was signed on 8 February", said Elsiddiq. "Which means that the signing happened before the result was published".
One of the clauses in the tender was that, after publication of the results, bidders disqualified could appeal against the decision.
"We didn't have this opportunity because the contract had already been signed with the company that presented the highest price", said Elsiddiq. "A difference of two million dollars is a lot of money. How many schools could be built with that money ?" But a source in the ANE claimed that Brithol Michcoma was disqualified because the US-based Datacard group, the world's leading producer of identity cards, passports and similar documents, did not authorise the company to negotiate with the Mozambican government on the matter, or to use any of the equipment that Datacard sells.
Elsiddiq denies this categorically. "It's a lie, because we are the representatives of Datacard in Mozambique", he said.
"This is the biggest company of the kind in the world, and it can produce 7,000 driving licences a day". (A visit to the Datacard website shows that Brithol Michcoma does indeed represent this group).
The tender was for the production of 400,000 driving licences, and Brithol Michcoma had sent the ANE a model of the licence it proposed to produce.
On learning that the South African company had won, Brithol Michcoma contacted the World Bank's office in Maputo, and the Bank's Washington headquarters. It also intends to take the matter to the offices of President Armando Guebuza and Prime Minister Luisa Diogo, and to the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (which is supervised by the Attorney-General).
SOURCE: AIM
