How SSNIT selected $66m deal for controversial IT project over $3.8m bid

It has emerged that several other firms submitted significantly lower estimates to execute the controversial SSNIT IT project, however, management decided to select a supplier whose estimate was the most expensive.

One bid sighted by Joy News was just estimated at GH¢17 million or $3.8 million dollars, although meeting all but one of the criteria for selection.

The contracts documents intercepted by Joy News also show that contract sum was initially pegged at $34 million and not $66 million as put out by the current management of national insurance and pensions manager.

Details
In all, ten IT firms submitted bids.
The firms had one simple task: to automate all SSNIT business processes on a turnkey basis. In other words, the firms will fully design, construct and implement the automation and then turn the project over to SSNIT once it was completed.

Photo: All 10 companies that bid for the project and their estimated costs

Out of the ten firms Persol, one of the bidders, quoted the least expensive cost to execute the project -- a cost of GH¢17.4 million or $3.8 million.

Sambus Company Limited quoted the second least expensive cost, promising to execute the project for $9.8 million.

However, the company that won the contract, Perfect Business Systems and Silver Lake Consortium submitted a bid of $27 million – 8 times that of Persol.

Management of SSNIT explained that they did not consider Persol because they lacked a Power of Attorney from their partners.

Photo: The less expensive estimates met the criteria for selection

The contract documents also reveal that there were several variations made to the contract that may have bloated the final contract sum.

The contract was signed in 2012, however, a project closure report dated April 29, 2016, also intercepted gave a 100 per cent perfect score for project implementation.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com