The dispute between the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and outsourcing company Gijima over the “Who Am I” contract is still not settled, but Gijima has made no move to engage in court action.
This is despite CEO Jonas Bogoshi's statements in September that the company would resort to this if its latest offer was not accepted within a few weeks.
Gijima was granted a multibillion-rand contract for the department's project, which was meant to replace outdated paper-based and manual systems with electronic processes.
The contract was subsequently cancelled by the department and Gijima has been contesting the cancellation.
Impending closure?
At a post state of the nation address briefing, home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma refuted media claims that the matter had been settled.
“It is untrue we are giving Gijima R2 million as a settlement. This is untrue.”
Gijima has been in discussions with the department to try and resolve the impasse since May, in a bid to avoid having to go to court to have the deal enforced.
However, in September Bogoshi told investors and analysts that the dispute may end up in court, if its latest offer was not accepted within the next few weeks. Gijima made an offer to the department that it believed was in line with what home affairs wants, said Bogoshi, without providing further details.
However, five months later, the matter has not yet been finalised or taken to court.
“We cancelled the contract following which Gijima said they would go to court so we waited to see what they would do. They did not go to court, but asked us for an out-of-court settlement. The department and SARS [South African Revenue Services] have been meeting with them to try and finalise this issue,” said Dlamini-Zuma.
She added that the department would only reveal details once the matter has been finalised. “We are almost at the end of this.”
“Gijima is engaged in discussions with the DHA to resolve this issue. We are close to a solution, but cannot give any date. All issues around the 'Who Am I Online' contract are being discussed, but we cannot give any further details at this stage,” says Thoko Mnyango, executive of marketing, communication and transformation at Gijima, in response to ITWeb's queries about the current negotiations.
Hampering IT
The minister said the work done so far on the department's IT systems was only one part of the requirements.
She said the matter is, therefore, hampering the department's IT progress, since the delay in rolling out the smart ID card project is due to this ongoing dispute with Gijima.
“For us, what is important is that we conclude this matter and what was supposed to be implemented. If this matter remains unresolved, we cannot move forward.
“We are even held back on the live capture of information. We require this for the smart card and so on. We need to have integrated systems, fingerprints, refugee affairs. All these systems must be integrated.”
The smart ID card is envisaged to replace the current green ID book to limit forgery and fraud. The new system is supposed to introduce a card format ID, with a microchip embedded, which can be used to secure state pension payouts, with additional uses being considered.
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