National ID Card Scandal

WORRYING SIGNALS of possible massaging of the bid for the country’s National Identification Card to a French company have emerged.

Gye Nyame Concord’s local and international investigations have revealed that the French company, SAGEM S. A., may win the bid. Alternatively, another French company in the bid said to be discreetly backed by SAGEM and which has the blessing of the French Embassy in Accra could secure it, sources say.

Either way, it’s a French deal, insiders told the Concord.

SAGEM gained the upper hand in the bidding process from the beginning following the tailoring of the bidding requirements to the bid it made in Nigeria for that country’s national ID card bid.

Investigations conducted by this reporter in Abuja and Lagos last month revealed that officials of Ghana secured the Request For Proposal (RFP) of Nigeria for study here before the drawing of Ghana’s bidding requirement.

Surprisingly, the bidding requirement that was drawn up for the bidders ended up requesting for almost the exact solution that SAGEM, a French Automatic Fingerprint Integrated System (AFIS) provider, offered in Nigeria. .

The RFP, which is available to this reporter seems to be the perfect match for the answers that SAGEM offered in its bid to the Nigerian RFP (also available to this paper) almost two years ago, despite the technological changes in the ID card industry, which keeps changing by the day.

The tailoring was done despite the fact that SAGEM ranked fifth in the Nigerian bid upon evaluation of its bid. Eventually it secured the bid through the back door, landing the Nigerian government in court for disregarding its own laid-down bid process and awarding the contract to SAGEM.

Interestingly, the Ghanaian bid, which was until the last hour a national bid, was also changed to an international bid, allowing companies such as SAGEM to enter the process at the last hour.

The changeover was not advertised and the bidding companies were only informed of the change from a national to an international bid at the last minute, Concord can reveal.

At the time, the bid had been advertised as a national bid.

Incidentally, some international companies such as SAGEM were in the race for the bid even before the local bid companies were informed of the changeover.

The French consultant appointed to handle the national bidding process was also retained when the bid was made an international one and saw the French companies in the race.

Deputy Information Minister and key player in the Ghanaian bidding process, Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, told this reporter when this was brought to his notice that changes are being effected to the RFP and that government would ensure that the French consultant would not evaluate the bids.

He assured this reporter that government would ensure a transparent bidding process.

Meantime, within government itself, Concord off-the-cuff checks saw two sharp reactions to the fact that the RFP was not even an original one by the French consultant.

Some claim they were unaware that the RFP was from Nigeria and thought it was the original work of the French consultant. Those who knew thought it was a non-issue.

Meantime, the possible conflict of interest situation created by a French consultant handling a bidding process in which French companies have a stake is yet to be properly addressed.

Though SAGEM placed fifth in the Nigerian bid, it secured the over-bloated $215 million bid from the Nigerian government as a result of what sources in the Nigerian Senate, Department of National Civic Registration ( DNCR), National Population Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) all in Abuja told the Concord, was as a result of pressure brought to bear on the Obasanjo regime by France.

More than two years after the contract was supposed to have been completed, no Nigerian as yet has a national ID card.

What is presently available are receipts for data collection. Stay tuned.