French company leading botched home affairs dept ID project lands big biometrics job at SA airports

Source: News24, 18/12/2023

ACSA has defended the procurement process followed when appointing Idemia to provide biometric technology at a host of South African airports.
Carl Court/Getty Images
• Idemia has been awarded a contract to establish biometric technology in South African airports.
• The company has been at the forefront of a botched project to establish a new ID registration system for the home affairs department.
• Airports Company South Africa defended the procurement process that has been followed.
Idemia, a French technology company that is being charged penalties by the Department of Home Affairs for repeated delays in delivering a new identity system, has been awarded a new contract to introduce biometric technology at nine South African airports.
In a statement from last week, Idemia announced that it had been awarded a contract by Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) that will see nine airports equipped with passenger flow facilitation technology by 2026.
The technology is designed to collect users` biometric information by using techniques such as facial recognition, fingerprints and iris scanning to link their identity to a database and automatically assess whether access should be granted.
The technology is supposed to improve the speed and security of passenger flow at airports.
Idemia said the project would run into 2026. However, the company has a history of delays in South Africa.
The company, that serves a host of international customers, has been at the forefront of a botched attempt to put in place a new identification system for the Department of Home Affairs.
In a home affairs portfolio committee meeting in September this year, Deputy Director-General of Home Affairs Thulani Mavuso explained the history of the project.
In 2017, South African technology company EOH Mthombo partnered with Morphocards (a company later acquired by Idemia) to transition the existing means of identity verification at the department, to a new, more modern system called the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS).
The contract was marred by controversy from the get-go, as it was later revealed that EOH was given sensitive tender information before bidding on the R400-million contract started.
In March of 2019, the then-acting director general of home affairs said that ABIS was set to go live in May of 2019.
But that deadline was missed and the project hit a real snag in 2020 when EOH Mthombo wrote to the department declaring their intent to exit the contract.
The contract was ceded to Idemia, which commenced with the project from May of 2021.
Mavuso explained that Idemia was initially expected to complete phase 1 of the project, where fingerprint recognition, facial recognition and latent search functionality were expected to be fully operational by 30 November of 2021.
Idemia was granted four extensions at the start of 2022 and eventually, the deliverables for the first phase of the project were reduced.
Mavuso confirmed that the ABIS system officially went live on 8 September 2023, although many functionalities still need to be developed.
In a statement sent by Idemia to News24 in response to questions, the company did not explain why there were so many delays in getting the system live. The company said that any further questions in that regard should be directed to the home affairs department.
News24 sent a list of questions to the department, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Mavuso said in the September briefing that the department was withholding an invoice of R8 million to Idemia while the parties settled a penalties dispute regarding the delays in delivering the system.
A cumulative R307 934 million in irregular expenditure relating to the ABIS project was reported in the 2022/23 Department of Home Affairs annual report.
The report also revealed that an arbitration process relating to the project between EOH and the department was underway, where EOH is claiming costs to the value of R115 million.
World Bank debarment
Internationally, a company that was later in the merger to become Idemia, has been involved in controversies too. Oberthur Technologies, which merged with Morpho in 2017 to become Idemia was debarred for two and a half years by the World Bank in 2017.
The sanction by the World Bank was implemented owing to `corrupt and collusive practices` by the company with respect to an identity system being established in Bangladesh.
`The sanction is part of a Negotiated Resolution Agreement following the company’s acknowledgement of improper payments to a sub-contractor and collusive misconduct to obtain and modify bid specifications to narrow competition and secure the award of the contract,` read the World Bank statement announcing the debarment.
The World Bank did however acknowledge some positives with respect to the response of the company to the investigation.
It said in the statement:
The sanction reflects Oberthur`s extensive cooperation with the World Bank investigation, its voluntary acknowledgment of misconduct and the company’s proactivity in pursuing corrective action, including an internal investigation, while holding individuals connected with the misconduct accountable.
In a statement sent by Idemia to News24, the company acknowledged the incident, which dates back to 2015 and explained that no new elements had emerged since then.
`Oberthur Technologies learned from this case in 2018 and significantly strengthened its compliance program under the World Bank`s guidance. The monitoring and control measures put in place by the World Bank expired in 2020,` Idemia said.
Forging ahead
In response to questions from News24 regarding why the contract to deploy the biometric systems was awarded to Idemia, ACSA chief information officer Mthokozisi Mncwabe said that proper procurement processes were followed.
`The decision to award the contract for the deployment of biometric systems to Idemia was based on the procurement evaluation criteria which was applied fairly across all service providers who applied for this tender,` he said.
`The supply chain management process is rigorous and includes the scrutinizing of all companies` eligibility. Only those companies with an existing blacklisting status with government entities and those are disqualified.`
He said that the project was currently in its planning phase and that no funds had been dispersed yet.
Mncwabe said that ACSA wanted to use technology to get to a point where passengers didn`t need documents at the airport.
`The Single Token solution aims to simplify the passenger journey through airport terminals. Instead of dealing with physical documents, travellers can seamlessly navigate through touchpoints using facial recognition,` he said.
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Idemia punted its credentials with dealing with these types of projects.
`We currently deploy numerous biometric systems in more than 80 countries, performing billions of biometric transactions successfully,` the company said.
`Idemia`s expertise in this field, repeatedly recognized in industry rankings, enables it to offer state-of-the-art fingerprint, facial, and iris biometric technologies that enhance passenger security while making their experience more seamless.`
Idemia said it was `delighted` to be awarded the `landmark` contract.