ID Cards: Cost of Rs 1.1 Billion Agreed on Singaporeans’ Proposal

Responding to PNQ on Tuesday 30 October, the Minister of computer technology and communication (ICT) explained that the government has chosen to facilitate an agreement between the Government for the implementation of the proposed new cards national identity. Thus, after long discussions with the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise and the firm CrimsonLogic Singapore Ltd, an agreement was signed for an amount of Rs 1.1 billion.

The proposal comes from Singaporeans and has been accepted by the Government of Mauritius. Consultant fees from Rs 10.9 million has already been paid to the consortium of Singapore.

The first part of the PNQ was based on a first year of tender launched in November 2008. Three bidders were selected with offers ranging from Rs 250 million to Rs 345 million. The Minister noted that the final project cost was Rs 650 million with other expenses allegedly incurred by the Government. The three bids only concerned the production of maps.

This project was abandoned by the government in November 2009. Procedures for a new year tender were launched in February 2010. On 26 March 2010, the government decided to find a direct agreement with the Singapore Cooperation Enterprise and the private firm CrimsonLogic Ltd..

A final agreement was signed between the Government of Mauritius and Singapore October 17 institution including a confidentiality clause.

Minister of ICT has expanded explanations in the first two parts of the question. Reading his initial response lasted a little over 30 minutes.This has caused many protests from the opposition.

On two occasions, the Speaker had to intervene by asking for direct answers to direct questions.

Accused the opposition of trying to hide something behind his lengthy response, the Minister Pillay Tassarajen is out of his gongs to accuse a political agent, very close in the past the opposition attempted bribery in the first year of tender. According to the Minister of ICT, the agent would have received at dinner a very high part of one of the bidders in the first tender exercise. He said that the project had been abandoned because there were suspicions of corruption.