Govt followed law in K16bn deal—OPC
The Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) says government duly followed all required procurement regulations and procedures in granting the $49.6 million (K16 billion kwacha) e-government services project to China’s Huawei Technologies Limited.
OPC spokesperson Arthur Chipenda said on Thursday this week that it may not have provided adequate information to a Weekend Nation questionnaire for last Saturday’s story on how government offered the contract to Huawei Technologies.
He said the job was tendered—and not that government sought proposals from two firms as OPC explained in its initial response.
Chipenda said the project—initially called Government Communications System—was conceived in 2007 for implementation by the ministries of Finance, Information and Civic Education before it was shifted together with the Department of e-Government to OPC.
He said the ministries of Finance, Information and Civic Education advertised in the local media Expression of Interest (EOI) to undertake, design and implement a Government Communications System in July 2008.
Chipenda added that only Chinese firms were eligible to bid as a condition that the financiers, People’s Republic of China, set.
He said after the advertised call for EOI, only two Chinese companies—ZTE Corporation and Huawei Technologies Limited—submitted.
Chipenda said after the initial preliminary evaluation, the technical evaluation team recommended that both firms had the capacity to roll out the project.
“The recommendation of the technical evaluation team prompted government to request the two firms to submit their detailed technical and financial proposals as required by the procurement process,” he said.
He said after evaluation of the technical and financial proposals, Huawei Technologies Limited emerged as the preferred bidder.
“The office of the Director of Public Procurement issued a “No Objection” to the award of the contract to Huawei Technologies Letter in its letter Ref. No. ODPP/03/49/22 of October 21, 2010 following the request of IPC,” Chipenda added.
