One of the companies that bid for Social Security National Trust’s (SSNIT) Operating Business Suit (OBS) software deal, Persol System has rubbished the selection criteria for the contract.
Persol Systems and nine other companies bid for the contract at the sum of GHC 17 million in 2011. Perfect Business System/ Silver Lake Consortium however won the bid at 27 million dollars.
The Chief Executive Officer of Persol Systems , Michael Quarshie on the Citi Breakfast Show said SSNIT did a poor job in the bidding process hence refused to consider better options that his outfit offered for the contract.
He was disappointed that SSNIT subsequently opted for a much more expensive contract with another company.
“Our understanding was that we were providing an integrated software system for SSNIT and on that project it included a number of modules. We proposed software from two very well known companies; SAP and Oberthur. SAP gave a massive discount on the software and they pushed all the partners to cut down the margins and it was a very very good deal but what SSNIT communicated to SAP was that they did not have enough money and they gave Africa pricing and they pushed us all to cut down our margins but now we know the government of Ghana has more money.”
He further stated that SSNIT could not offer tangible reasons for not selecting his outfit after pushing for the cost to be reduced.
“There was no formal communication..There was a power of attorney document and the power of attorney had our company secretary signed and also whoever was given the power of attorney’s name was on it. I heard they were expecting my name to be on it and that the person we gave the power of attorney to should have been the same person who signed all the other agreements with the vendors and I think that was really flawed logic because persol could have entered into agreement with companies with our partners. The fact that you have company documents signed in another name does not mean you should have tender documents in that same name.”
SSNIT settled for the $72 million OBS software to automate all the core processes in the administration of pension although it received tenders to undertake the project at much cheaper prices including $9 million
The Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) is currently investigating five officials of SSNIT for their alleged involvement in the acquisition of the software.
Reports say the software was to network all branches of SSNIT across the country to enable them to receive real time data directly to the headquarters in Accra and enhance efficiency.
A total of 10 companies bid for SSNIT’s now controversial OBS project.
Of the 10, Persol Systems put in the lowest bid of GHC17 million approximately $3.4 million.
The highest bid was by Computer information System who wanted to undertake the project for GHC 36 million.
The eventual winner of the contract was Perfect Business Systems & Silverlake Consortium who presented an initial bid price of $27 million but that was revised later to $34 million.
[“Source-citifmonline”]
