Johannesburg - A consortium of consultants could face fraud charges for submitting an unsolicited bid allegedly using tender information that the Department of Communications had not made public.
On July 22, the department laid a criminal complaint against the consortium led by Brenda Malongete of Malongete Professional Services at the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria. The case is being investigated by the commercial crimes branch.
Efforts to speak to the police about the matter were not successful at the time of going to press.
A former employee of the department, who asked to remain anonymous, said: "There is suspicion that an official within the department leaked the specifications of the tender to the consortium.
"The department has not officially published the tender, so how did these people get the specifications and the information about the tender?"
The department has been investigating the matter internally since March. Malongete filed the proposal in February in which it quoted R4.3m for its advisory services.
Malongete had offered to advise the department on the process to move the country's broadcasting into the era of clearer pictures and better sound quality, commonly referred to as digital migration.
Part of this move entails manufacturing decoders that will allow households that have old or analogue television sets to benefit from digital broadcasts.
Households that do not have the new decoders will not be able to watch programmes after a broadcasting standard is implemented in 2015.
Malongete wanted the contract to advise on the manufacturing of the decoders. In its proposal, Malongete hinted at having seen terms of reference – which were never issued – for the tender.
"We have read and accepted the rules of bidding, evaluation of bids and bid evaluation criteria set out in the terms of reference and will abide by such rules for the duration of the proposed provision of services to the department," the proposal reads.
The department initially planned to invite potential advisers to submit proposals in May, but indecision on whether South Africa should adopt the European (DVB-T) or Japanese (ISDB-T) technology platform for local decoders delayed the issuing of the tender.
Brenda Malongete said she was not aware of the complaint.
'Hundreds of proposals'"Nobody has said anything to us," she said. "I don't know anyone at the department of communications as I am not a service provider to the department. As far as I know, we have not done anything irregular."
She said her company submits hundreds of proposals to government departments and municipalities, and she could not remember the proposal she filed with the department of communications.
The news about the tender leaking at the department comes shortly after Zuma ordered the Special Investigating Unit to probe seven government departments, including the SA Police Service, following a surge in complaints about corruption and tender fraud.
The leaking of the tender information suggests that there are officials in the department who may be interested in influencing the awarding of the tender.
Department of communications spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso confirmed that a complaint had been laid against Malongete.
"The matter is currently in the hands of law enforcement agencies, but I am not in a position to comment further. With regard to the issue of leaks, that's an internal matter and we are dealing with it," he said.
An adviser in the digital migration process will wield enormous influence over the project as it would advise the department on which bidders to pick to manufacture five million decoders for low-income households, which will be sold at a 70% discount. The discount will be funded via a R3.4bn government subsidy.
Cabinet approved the European DVB-T technology standard under the Broadcasting Digital Migration Policy for South Africa in August 2008 and chose Altech UEC as the preferred decoder manufacturer.
However, the government's mooted U-turn on the European standard could result in Altech UEC missing out on the tender as the Japanese have indicated that they would use their own decoder manufacturer.
Altech UEC designs and manufactures decoders for MultiChoice and also supplies foreign broadcasters with decoders.
- City Press