German company wins contract for identity documents – Mozambique

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German company wins contract for identity documents – Mozambique

10:23 CAT | 23 Nov 2017

South African President Jacob Zuma addresses his supporters after he survived a no-confidence motion in Cape Town, South Africa, August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

In file CoM

The Mozambican Ministry of the Interior has awarded the contract for installing and strengthening the system to produce identity and travel documents and visas to the German company Mulbauer ID Services.

The announcement of the award was published in Wednesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The announcement had been expected, since the German company won the tender held earlier this year.

This follows the government’s termination of the contract held by the Belgian company Semlex Europe, following a lengthy dispute arising from the incapacity of Semlex to produce documents in good time and with the quality demanded by the government.

Semlex signed with the government, in 2009, a BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) contract, valid for 10 years for the supply of secure solutions for the production of identity cards, travel documents, identification and residence documents for foreigners (DIRE) and frontier visas.

The government terminated the contract after an audit found Semlex in violation of the contract. In August Semlex said it demanded another audit which should be “carried out by an independent entity, a recognized company, with proven technical and professional experience in the area”. The government turned this proposal down, and Semlex closed down its operations in Mozambique on 30 September .

The Semlex contract was always mired in controversy. The deal was struck by the previous government, under President Armando Guebuza, and the contract was given to Semlex in 2009 without any public tender, in violation of Mozambique’s procurement rules.

Immediately there were claims that the contract was illegal, and protests at the high prices charged for the Semlex identity documents. Thus the price for a Mozambican passport jumped from the equivalent of five or ten US dollars (depending on type) to 100 dollars. An identity card more than tripled in price (from the equivalent of less than two dollars to six dollars).

According to press reports of the time, the greater part of the revenue from the issuing of identity documents went to Semlex – the original calculation was that, of the predicted annual revenue from the project, about 63 per cent would go to Semlex and only 37 per cent to the Mozambican state.

According to a 2015 investigation by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), Semlex promised to invest 100 million dollars in the ten years of the contract. But by the time of the CIP report only 25 per cent of this amount had been invested.

When the new tender was launched this year, Semlex did not submit a bid in its own name, but as the Lithuanian company UAB Carsu Pasaulis. Since the Semlex Group purchased this company in 2014, the Lithuanian bid can be regarded as coming from Semlex under another name.

A jury from the Ministry of the Interior assessed the technical bids from five companies and announced its classification on 9 August. The Mozambican subsidiary of the German company Muhlbauer ID Services, won, with a score from the jury of 84.85. UAB Garsu Pasaulis trailed with a score of 70.05.

Source: AIM Report