Legal team appeals to Tinubu to wade into irregularities in bidding process of the Data Base project in Nigeria

A legal team known as Messrs Creazioni Nigeria Limited, agents/partners to Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey has written to President Bola Tinubu to wade into certain irregularities in the bidding process of the Data Base project in the country.

Penpushing reports that in the letter of appeal the team explained that the Nigeria Device Management System (DMS) Project was tendered on October 7, 2022 through the tender method conducted by the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) in which Prequalified bidders were invited.

‘We are writing because of certain irregularities in the bidding process of the Data Base project in the country. Although the Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey submitted the highest price in favor of the Nigerian Government in the tender, where the technical score was evaluated with a weight of 70% and the price with a weight of 30%; with the unfair and unrealistic technical scoring, In Mobile Company was put ahead’.

Penpushing further reports that the legal team stated that the decision of the tender evaluation commission; as can be seen from the explanations given, is dis-advantage of the Nigerian Government, stressing that this includes financial justifications

‘The Upfront Fees offered by the bidders are as follows: Bidder Name Upfront Fee. Messrs Durmaz JV  $11.479.000,00 . InMobile $10.155.368,00  .Equinox/Invigo $5.551.674,00. As can be seen, the choice of the InMobile causes the Nigerian Government to lose $1.3M only from Upfront Fee revenue’.

‘Our estimated annual contribution (tax revenue) to Nigeria will reach 500 million USD in 2 years which means 5 billion USD in 10 years. This represents triple the figure that Inmobiles can achieve, thanks to our proven technological advancements demonstrated in Turkey’.

Penpushing also reports that the team pointed out that the technical points given in the technical evaluation are as follows: Bidder Name       Technical Score. Messrs Durmaz JV 84. InMobile    92 Equinox/Invigo           73

‘As shown in the table; In order for InMobile to win the tender, InMobile was awarded a high Technical score despite the low price.  However; it goes against the realities of life for InMobile to get a higher technical score than Messrs Durmaz JV. Our reasons in this regard are listed below’.

‘The only working DMS reference of InMobile is in the Lebanon. Although InMobile declares to have installed DMS in Turkmenistan and Kenya, this declaration is not true. Especially, at the date of the tender, InMobile did not have a working DMS system in Kenya’.

‘There is no chance that the evaluation team that went to Kenya for Due Diligence would have seen a working system. Indeed; the article in the link below, published in Tech Africa News on December 4, 2023; is proof of how early the project in Kenya is’

‘Kenya’s Communications Authority Clarifies Device Management System Implementation for Security and Compliance, December 4, 2023. The DMS established by Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey has been operating for 15 years.  Nevertheless; considering that the population of Turkey is 85 million and the population of Lebanon is 4.2 million, it will be clearly seen that InMobile’s higher Technical score than Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey is an erroneous assessment’.

Penpushing reports that the appeal letter explained that based on all these facts; InMobiles should have been eliminated because they did not meet the tender qualification criteria because of Kenya project that did not exist, let alone received more InMobile’s technical points than Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey.

‘When the both DMS solutions of InMobile and Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey has been compared, will be clearly seen that; The following features and functions are not available in the solution of InMobile:

Penpushing further reports that the team stated that call Centre call services and integration comprises imports Check Services, black, white and red List management services, prosecutor’s office services and number Check Web Service for Citizens

The letter added that this also include clone analysis module: Time-Based Clone Analysis Module, Specification/Service Based Clone Analysis Module, Geographical-based Clone Analysis Module, Passport Web Service module, Bank Web Service module, e-government Integration Web Service module and E-Signature integration

‘Although it is very clear to us that the technical features and functions of Messrs Durmaz JV’s DMS System are far ahead, it is never understandable that InMobile has a higher Technical score the Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey’.

‘Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey is in accordance with the Nigerian local content law to implement a Training and Localization plan that will see a rise of Nigerian staff to approximately 90% of its total human resources within 2 years’.

‘For this project, the localization and training plans are department-specific. i.e., the technical teams would employ Nigerians to shadow and train under the non-Nigerian staff while the legal department is already completely Nigerian’.

Penpushing also reports that on security justifications the team posited that it should be clearly stated that; InMobile does not have a local black-list management system, stressing that,therefore, InMobile’s DMS sends all the data to the CDMA, which means that the data that is vital for the country is taken abroad. This is a very serious security problem.

‘The DMS system of Messrs Durmaz JV in Turkey has the ability to perform all these analyses in the Data-Centre to be established in Nigeria and no data is taken out of the country’ the legal team team explained.

Penpushing  reports that the team passionately called on the President to use his good office to ensure that justice, transparency, fair play is displayed by awarding Messrs.’ Durmaz JV in Turkey as the winning bidder in the exercise

‘Use your good offices to ensure that justice, transparency, fair play is displayed by awarding Messrs.’ Durmaz JV in Turkey as the winning bidder in the exercise because it will generate more income for our ailing economy, provide jobs and improve the security architecture of the country’, the letter emphasised.

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