The South Africa Social Security Agency (SASSA) has been ordered to submit a new request for proposals (RFP) for a five-year social grant payment tender.
In April, the Constitutional Court ordered that SASSA intiate a new tender process for the contract. Accordingly, the agency issued an RFP on 22 October, with proposals to be submitted by 12 December.
However, Net1 UEPS Technologies – the current contractor for the social payments – argued that the tender specifications were not sufficiently clear regarding a number of critical points and failed to comply with the RFP requirements specified in the court’s order.
Net1 requested that the RFP be withdrawn, which SASSA refused, and the company applied to the court in November to “ensure that there is no ambiguity in the tender specifications or conflict with the court’s April 2014 remedy order in an attempt to reduce the likelihood of another prolonged legal challenge should SASSA award a new tender”, according to a statement from Net1 UEPS.
The application was opposed by both SASSA and Allpay, which was the unsuccessful bidder for the previous contract).
On 5 December, the court ordered that the deadline for submission of bids for the RFP be extended to 7 February 2015.
It also instructed SASSA to finalise its proposed amendments to the RFP by 15 December and to file a copy of the draft amended RFP to the court by 20 December.
SASSA must also ciculate the draft amended RFP to all litigating parties and all the other bidders by 20 December; and it must highlight all the changes made in response to the court application and to the questions posed by those bidders in response to the written question and answer procedure contained in the RFP.
A bidder’s notice calling upon all bidders to furnish objections or questions to the draft amended RFP to SASSA by 15 January 2015 must also be published.
