Black-owned ICT services firm Gijima has again emerged victorious in a tender fight against Indian-based tech firm In2IT.
The companies have been squabbling over a South African Police Service (SAPS) tender that was illegally awarded to In2IT Technologies by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
In a statement, Gijima says following recent inquiries about the court dispute regarding a SITA contract, the company is pleased to announce it has been successful regarding the dismissal of leave to appeal the application.
“Gijima has yet again been successful in the Gauteng Local Division High Court in an application regarding the contract with SITA for the provision of maintenance and support for PBX [private branch exchange] systems for the SAPS,” says Gijima CEO Maphum Nxumalo.
“Gijima, together with its partner, Advanced Voice Systems (AVS), were awarded the contract for the provision of maintenance and support for PBX systems for the South African Police Service which had been unlawfully awarded to In2IT Technologies, a multinational from India with a branch in South Africa. Justice has yet again been done by our High Court.”
In addition, and among other things, the High Court ordered that Gijima and AVS be substituted as the successful tenderer, SITA must conclude a memorandum of agreement within 30 days of the judgement with Gijima and AVS, and SITA and IN2IT must pay Gijima’s legal costs.
According to Gijima, SITA and In2IT unfortunately elected to apply for leave to appeal the judgement, vindicating Gijima on the basis that another court may come to a different conclusion on the merits of the matter.
The company says the High Court refused to grant the applications for leave to appeal and Judge Leonie Windell noted: “In order to grant leave, this court must be convinced on proper grounds that those prospects are not remote but have a realistic chance of succeeding…After careful consideration of the grounds of appeal, I am not convinced there are reasonable prospects that another court would come to a different conclusion. There are also not any compelling reasons to grant leave to appeal.”
Gijima’s attorneys, Nicqui Galaktiou, brought a review application pursuant to the awarding of the contract to In2IT in December 2020. Gijima says it exercised its constitutional right to challenge the unlawfully awarded contract and has been successful in both applications as granted on 9 February.
Gijima notes it looks forward to SITA’s compliance with the court order.
SITA and In2IT had contended that Gijima is a disgruntled, unsuccessful bidder trying to “abuse its monopoly to hold the government to ransom”.
SITA assessed the bidders’ bid prices, and found there was a substantial difference in price – Gijima’s bid price was approximately R160.3 million, whereas In2IT’s bid price was approximately R88.9 million.
This amounted to a difference of R71.4 million (55.5%). Gijima’s bid price was not only significantly higher than In2IT’s bid price, but also exceeded SITA’s budget for the services by approximately R40 million (33.61% more than SITA’s budget). Hence, it was only logical for SITA to appoint In2IT as the service provider, stated SITA and In2IT.
In response, Gijima submitted that, as In2IT did not satisfy the mandatory requirements, it should have been eliminated for non-compliance with the tender requirements.
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