Gijima loses SAPS tender to rivals In2IT after appeal

IT company Gijima has lost a multimillion-rand SAPS tender to In2IT Technologies after the rival company appealed when the tender was awarded to Gijima by the high court, saving the taxpayer millions.

The long-standing battle was for a tender over maintenance and support of PBX systems used by SAPS. Gijima’s bid price had been set at R160m, while In2IT set their price at just over R88m. In January 2021, State Information Technology Agency (Sita) awarded the three-year contract to In2IT.

Unhappy with the decision, in March 2021, Gijima and its partner, Advanced Voice Systems (AVS), approached the South Gauteng High Court to appeal Sita’s decision. In their appeal, the companies said they were the only entities that satisfied the tender requirements and there was ample evidence at its disposal to demonstrate that In2IT did not comply with the requirements of the tender.

The companies added that In2IT deceived Sita by purposefully providing a price that was below market value and left out some essential services. In October 2021, the high court set aside the award and ordered that Gijima be substituted in place of In2IT as the successful bidder. In2IT also sought leave to appeal against the order. Part of In2IT’s argument was that some of the software upgrades made by Gijima were unlikely to be required, because of the fact that the SAPS was phasing out the PBX systems.

“Gijima’s focus on software upgrades ... also loses sight of the narrow, stopgap purpose of the tender,” In2IT said in its court papers. Regarding their low price, the agency maintained that it was only logical for Sita to award them as the service provider, as opposed to Gijima, as their services exceeded Sita’s budget by more than R40m. Gijima’s bid price was about R160.3m, whereas In2IT’s bid price was almost R88.9m.

In response, Gijima said that In2IT should have been disqualified for failing to comply with the tender conditions since it did not meet the necessary qualifications. After listening to all the arguments, Judge LR Adams at the South Gauteng High Court, who presided over that matter, said Sita was best placed to decide how best to deal with the awarding of the tender.

“Sita exists precisely because procurement for information technology requires particular expertise. This tender is no different. Sita’s expertise is needed to determine how best to transition the SAPS from PBX to VoIP and how best to manage SAPS’s needs during the transition in a cost-effective way,” Judge Adams said.

The judge added that he was not convinced that the previous order granted by the court was just and equitable. “It seems innately unjust and unfair that Gijima was permitted by the order of the court a quo to adjust its price ex post facto after having had the benefit of seeing what was tendered by the other bidder,” he said.

Adams ruled in favour of In2IT and set aside the previous ruling which had awarded the tender to Gijima. He also ordered Gijima to pay the costs of the appeal.