Home Affairs Minister Lawrence Masha interfered with the process of obtaining a company to implement the National Identity Card Project contrary to the rules and regulations governing tendering procedures, it has been established.
Impeccable sources have intimated to The Guardian that the minister made the move after discovering that the firm he deemed appropriate for the job was likely to lose the tender.
The sources say he intervened after his firm of choice, Spains Sagem Securite, was eliminated in the third round of the selection exercise.
The exercise was done by the ministry`s tender board and involved the screening of a total of 54 eligible firms.
The first round saw 33 bidders thrown out and 13 were dropped in the second, leaving only eight.
Members of the tender board include the Commissioner for Prisons, Inspector General of Police and the Head of the Fire Brigade, while the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau is also represented.
According to the sources, Masha interfered with the process after receiving complaints from companies that were protesting ``unfair elimination``.
The sources add that on November 4 last year he summoned to his Dodoma office the ministry`s permanent secretary, who also chairs the tender board and is co-ordinator of the project. That was after receiving the complaints.
The minister is reported to have used the occasion to instruct the PS to call on the board to give a second chance to all tenders before the next phase of the process could start.
However, after going through the directives, the board stated that it was satisfied that there were no faults in the evaluation they had done.
It said Sagem Securite and all other bidders eliminated were treated fairly.
It is claimed that the PS was satisfied with the board`s response, which made minister Masha to summon him again apparently for advice from the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary Philemon Luhanjo had already ordered the PS to present implementation reports to the cabinet meeting. This was after the PS had presented a report on the tender evaluation exercise to him.
The sources hint that Luhanjo`s decision to order the Home Affairs ministry PS to present an implementation report at a cabinet meeting annoyed Masha because he (the minister) claimed that he had not been involved.
The minister is further reported to have been discontented because he believed that he was the one supposed to present the report and was also the one who would be responsible for any further decisions that would be made in connection with the issue.
Following the controversy, the sources say, Masha wrote Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda a letter complaining about what the Chief Secretary had done.
Contacted for comment by telephone yesterday in Dodoma, where he is attending National Assembly sessions, Masha would neither confirm nor refute the reports.
``Who had told you that I interfered with the process? Ask that person for the details you want. As for me, I have just been discharging my ministerial responsibilities as usual,`` he said.
Asked if indeed he once wrote the PM a letter complaining against Luhanjo, the minister responded: ``Whether I wrote the PM the purported letter or not is confidential information. I dont need to tell you that.``
A well-placed source with the PPRA said in an interview yesterday that any bidder feeling that he or she had been eliminated unfairly from a government tendering process ought to complain to the PS of the respective ministry.
The source said a bidder not satisfied with the decision made by the PS had the right to appeal to the PPRA no more than 28 working days after the results of tendering process are out.
Bidders not satisfied with the decision of the PPRA have the right to appeal to the Public Procurement Appeals Authority (PPAA), the topmost authority in that respect.
If a tender is announced and a contract has been signed by both parties, the aggrieved bidder can complain straight to the PPAA.
Two years ago the government announced the immediate implementation of a multi-billion-shilling National Identification Card Project scheduled for completion this year.
Joseph Mungai, then Home Affairs minister, said in Dodoma in February 2007 that the Smartcard system would be employed in place of the Barcode one used during the registration of voters for the 2005 General Election.
``Plans to execute the national ID project have been in progress since 1995. The cabinet received and endorsed a circular on the matter early this month after having decided that the project would be on a national scale,`` he explained.
The former minister said the project would cost 192bn/- and an independent National ID Management Agency would be formed and operate under the auspices of the ministry.
Funds had already been secured from various sources, with the World Bank having set aside USD 20m for the project, he added.
Explaining the comparative advantages of the Smartcard system, Mungai said it could store abundant information such as DNA analyses, criminal or medical reports, fingerprints and people`s birthplaces.
He added that any other valid data could be added to the card when necessary, including relevant information for national census purposes and on the number of eligible voters, the birth rate and development plans.
According to Mungai, the implementation of the project was preceded by studies from countries like Kenya, South Africa and Malaysia, with the Malaysian model found to be ``the best of them all``.
``The project will be provided with all facilities effective this month to cope with the timeframe set, which is December 2009. The IDs will be given free of charge but in case of misplacement one will be required to make some payment,`` said Mungai, without giving the amount.
He said overseeing the implementation of the exercise would be a steering committee drawing members from different categories, among them appropriate permanent secretaries and heads of department overseeing foreign affairs, civil service management, finance, and justice and constitutional affairs.
Local authorities would assist in data collection in Tanzania mainland and Zanzibar.
Mungai explained that security at the country`s territorial borders would be enhanced, with Immigration officials on hand to keep illegal immigrants away.
``The registration exercise will target all Tanzanian citizens wherever they may be residing as well as foreign nationals living in Tanzania. The IDs will indicate the actual status of each and every person covered,`` he noted.
A section of the media in January this year quoted the Home Affairs ministry`s spokesperson as saying that the government would pick one firm from a short-listed eight later cut to three to implement the project using `smart card` technology.
The spokesperson said a total of 54 local and foreign companies had tendered for prequalification.
Minister Masha was earlier quoted as having said the IDs could be made available before the end of this year through the National Identification Agency.
