Trade and industry minister Rob Davies says the department is facing a public mobilisation campaign to persuade the public that it has entered into a settlement with Valor IT, when this is not the case.
Davies was speaking at a media briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria this afternoon. He said the department is not in breach of a settlement with Valor IT because, although negotiations took place, the DTI principals did not sign off on a settlement.
Valor IT chairman Josias Molele has claimed the parties reached a court-sanctioned settlement last November after the DTI canned a contract between Valor IT and the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (Cipro) to install a R153 million electronic content management system.
The contract was cancelled after a forensic investigation revealed irregularities occurred during the awarding process. Valor IT subsequently sued the DTI and took it to court over the early cancellation.
However, Davies this afternoon said no agreement was ever entered into. “We do not intend to pay that sum of money.” Davies said the department is facing a publicity campaign to force it to pay, but would not reveal the source of the alleged campaign. “The source of the information is obvious; I'm not going to comment further.”
Back to court
Davies said any settlement would have been signed off by the acting director-general, Lionel October, and himself. He added that the matter will now go back to court to sort out “compensation, one way or the other”.
Molele has said he will go back to court to force the DTI to pay up in terms of the agreement. The settlement, according to Molele, covered three aspects and is worth R28 million in total. This includes an amount for early cancellation, and R3.4 million that was retained on invoices previously issued.
Molele claims the only outstanding issue not agreed to relates to a net amount of R9.8 million due for maintenance and service work. This issue is the subject of yet another court case.
In the meantime, Cipro is in talks with Waymark to maintain and upgrade its current legacy systems so the office will be ready for the new Companies Act, which will come into effect in April. Cipro acting CEO Lungile Dukwana says Waymark will also aid the office in plugging the security holes in its current system.
According to Dukwana, the contract is likely to run for 18 months and cost R11 million. Cipro is implementing the upgrades as a stopgap solution until the court rules on the Valor IT matter, which will then pave the way for Cipro to implement the ECM system.
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