Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO)

DA's accusations of tender rigging are part of "factually flawed" misinformation campaign

CIPRO stands firm - "organisational transformation programme will go ahead," says Chief Executive Officer

Pretoria, Thursday, October 22, 2009 CIPRO Chief Executive Officer, Keith Sendwe today said that the leadership of CIPRO was not discouraged by what appears to be an ongoing, misinformation campaign designed to thwart an internal transformation programme that is currently being implemented by the organisation.

"We will continue undeterred with our organisational transformation programme which is in the best interests of our clients and in keeping with the broader national agenda."

"The awarding of the CIPRO information technology tender to VALORit early this year has been addressed by the organisation and a number of questions were addressed via the office of the Director-General of Trade and Industry. This has been done on several occasions as well as on many different platforms including the media," said Sendwe.

He added that in the interests of transparency and accountability, he once again wished to respond to a number of misleading assertions that were made in a media statement issued by Mr Andricus van der Westhuizen of the Democratic Alliance on 21 October 2009 (see here).

Sendwe added that the allegation made in a "signed affidavit" by Mr Abe Mbulawa that he was advised to partner with close corporation "VALORit" during a meeting with Dr Michael Twum-Darko and himself is untrue.  "VALORit submitted a bid proposal as an individual bidder and was not part of a joint venture or consortium.  It also did not declare a subcontracting arrangement with Mantra Consulting," he added.

Mr Mbulawa in this affidavit makes reference to the fact that he was provided with a business case and additional material by Dr Twum-Darko. The business case was a public document which went through a number of iterations of review and was part of the evaluation process.

Inferences made regarding "previous relationships" between Abe Mbulawa and Dr Michael Twum-Darko and their influence on the outcome of the tender are misleading. The reality is that the information technology industry in South Africa is close knit.  For example, Dr Michael Twum-Darko worked for Faritec, one of the unsuccessful bidders for the CIPRO tender, in Cape Town for several years in a senior capacity.  Abe Mbulawa of Mantra, in his capacity as a consultant for Accenture, was one of CIPRO's external interview panel members who interviewed both the Chief Operations Officer and Chief Director: Strategic Support Services.

The assertion that the allocation of the VALORit tender "had drawn the attention of the Auditor-General" is misleading as a forensic audit has already been conducted by the office of the Auditor-General. The draft report of the Auditor-General, which was published in August this year, has revealed that the approved supply chain management process was indeed followed. The allegations and affidavit by Mr Mbulawa are currently with the Auditor-General for further investigation and CIPRO awaits the final report from the Auditor-General.

He said that a court case between Mantra Consulting (Pty) Ltd and VALORit CC, which is currently in progress, and which was also referred to in the media statement, was a matter between Mantra Consulting (Pty) Ltd and VALORit CC. CIPRO and the Minister of Trade and Industry have been cited as first and second interested parties and not defendants.  

On the question of the ‘security clearance' of Chief Information Officer, Dr Michael Twum-Darko, who is originally from Ghana and not from Botswana as incorrectly stated in the press statement, Sendwe said that Twum-Darko took office in January 2008. "He immediately completed security clearance documents, which were submitted to the National Intelligence Agency by CIPRO's Security unit. He also completed assets declaration forms and signed the customary declaration of secrecy." 

Dr Michael Twum-Darko is a South African permanent resident with a PhD degree from University of Cape Town in Information Systems and has been living in South Africa for more than 15 years. He previously worked as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Transkei and has held several senior IT management positions through the years. Dr Twum-Darko, whose credentials are impeccable, at present still serves as an external examiner for MTech on ICT related topics at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and is also a supervisor for a number of post-graduate students. 

Sendwe added that CIPRO stood firm in its conviction that VALORit, who has agreements with Zensar, TIBCO Software Inc. and Vignette, is the appropriate company to implement the Enterprise Content Management system, which is set to transform CIPRO into a new-look, totally e-focused organisation.

"Most of the assertions made in the media statement issued by the DA are not new and have, as indicated earlier, been addressed by CIPRO and the Department of Trade and Industry on previous occasions. What is however disconcerting is the fact that they appear to be part of an attempt to cast aspersions on the leadership of CIPRO in order to bring the stature of the entity into disrepute.  We will not allow this to go unchallenged," concluded Sendwe.

Statement issued by Martina Nicholson Associates (MNA) on behalf CIPRO, October 22 2009

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