Top ICT tenders: Biometrics to identify suspected foreigners

The Department of Home Affairs seeks handheld mobile devices for its inspectorate unit.

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National Treasury’s eTenders Portal experienced problems over the weekend, but determined players within the ICT industry would have discovered a slew of interesting technology requirements from various departments and state-owned entities.

Nevertheless, it is a tender from the Department of Home Affairs for the development and support of a biometric case management system (BCMS) as well as handheld mobile devices for its inspectorate unit that takes the headline.

Published just days after the 30 June protest action organised by March and March for the stricter enforcement of immigration laws and the departure of undocumented foreign nationals, the tender documentation reveals the system will be used on law enforcement operations for status verification and identification of suspected foreigners.

This will enable quick and accurate delivery on the feedback on verification as well as reduce the administrative work for detention while verification has to be run in the office, it says.

“The Unit Inspectorate exists to investigate any matter, including the arrests, detention, prosecution and deportation of illegal foreigners or those who conspire to facilitate illegal migration through corruption, manufacturing of fraudulent documents, entering, remaining and exiting South Africa illegally,” the department states.

“The whole process from arrest to deportation requires speedily processing of illegal foreigners within 48 hours. At present, officials need to determine the status of suspected illegal foreigners by conducting verification of documents in the office and this is a time-consuming process which affects the status determination that needs to be conducted within 48 hours.”

The department says the development of the new BCMS with handheld mobile devices will “transform and enhance” the inspectorate operations, making processes more efficient and resulting in instant and accurate responses.

Home Affairs explains that its current case management system (CMS) has been developed to be web-based and requires a normal website screen layout. For a CMS to be used in the field, a new solution needs to be developed, as the current one utilises old technology and has also reached end of life.

The proposed BCMS and handheld devices combination will enhance service delivery by enabling officials to capture biometrics and photographs in the field. This will improve data integrity, identity verification, accountability and turnaround times, while reducing manual processes and the risk of data inconsistencies.

“Moreover, all relevant information for investigation will be taken using handheld mobile devices: fingerprints, photos, uploading of any required supporting documents and signatures endorsed electronically. That will immensely assist in delivering on quick and accurate feedback on our investigations,” it says.

“In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the development of BCMS will definitely address most of the country’s challenge in curbing illegal migration, as well as ensuring effective management aspects when conducting deportation.”

The Department of Home Affairs will hold a compulsory briefing over Microsoft Teams on 10 July before submissions close on 24 July.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The Department of Land Reform and Rural Development wishes to appoint a service provider to develop a future of geospatial technology and AI integration strategy. The department says it recognises the need to align its capabilities with emerging digital innovations. This includes improving spatial data infrastructure, adopting machine learning for pattern recognition, predictive analytics for agriculture and land management, and enhancing citizen engagement via smart digital platforms.

• The Eastern Cape Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture is inviting bids for the provision of endpoint backup and data protection as a service. The contract will include the required professional services for remediation or resolving issues or solution rollout, the department says. The tender is limited to registered IT vendors/service providers on SITA’s RFB 1183 contract.

• The Eastern Cape department is also calling for the provision of ICT professional services. The required services are split into five areas: application development and systems functional support services; helpdesk support and server/network administration services; ICT governance and compliance consultant services; ICT strategic consulting services; and ICT specialised security services. The tender is open to registered IT vendors/service providers on SITA’s RFB 1183 contract.

• The South African Revenue Service is looking for a project and portfolio management information system. SARS explains its enterprise programme management office executes numerous projects concurrently where some projects are critical and urgent, while others are long-term and may span over multiple financial years. In order to be successful, projects require continual management from project conception to close-out; however, no project can exist in a vacuum, and failure to connect multiple project strategies, schedules, business cases, budgets, scope definitions and priorities or objectives lead to a siloed and unintegrated project portfolio, it explains.

• Eskom’s National Transmission Company of South Africa (NTCSA) is inviting bids for the design, supply, delivery, installation, commissioning, testing, support and training on an internet protocol address management (IPAM) solution on an as and when required basis. The company notes that without an IPAM solution, IP telecoms teams encounter several hurdles that impede network efficiency and scalability. The challenges include the inability to effectively allocate and track IP addresses, difficulties in maintaining accurate network documentation, increased risk of IP address conflicts and overlapping. Manual management processes become time-consuming and error-prone as the network expands, exacerbating the strain on the IP telecoms team. For this reason, it is looking for a turnkey solution to upgrade its IPAM solution.

• Postbank SOC intends to procure a qualified approved scanning vendor secured services to perform non-intrusive external vulnerability scans on its systems. This will include the design and implementation of solutions to meet its requirements for a cloud-based desktop solution; submission requirement to support a PCI DSS compliant system; data and banking regulations controls to deliver a compliant solution (data leaks prevention, ransomware prevention and POPI act compliance); a fully compliant, auditable solution at both Prod and DR sites; all necessary documentation, certifications and training; and a dedicated team of support agents to manage and support the system until handed over to the internal team. The bank notes the solution should be capable of being hosted on Postbank’s cloud of choice and should support +1 000 users and be capable of being scaled up or down.

• The South African Social Security Agency is inviting proposals for provision of the design, implementation, operation, support and maintenance of a secure, resilient and modernised wide area network (WAN) solution. It will be expected to provide secure, reliable, scalable and highly-available connectivity across all agency sites; support automated failover and link redundancy; enable centralised management and orchestration; ensure optimal application performance; support secure access to internal systems, hosting environments, internet services and strategic partners; and align with industry best practices in network security and architecture.

• Eskom’s NTCSA returns with a call for information to identify cloud and edge computing technologies’ deployment and cyber security implementation approaches, strategies and architectures, applicable to its operational technology environment. The company explains that as the electricity sector evolves due to greater grid complexity, renewable integration and increased operational data volumes, it requires a deeper understanding of the applicability, benefits, limitations and risks associated with cloud and edge computing within a South African critical infrastructure context. Key considerations include technology maturity, cyber security implications, architecture options, data sovereignty requirements, operational integration, skills demands and indicative cost models.

• The utility’s transmission company also requires information to evaluate the maturity and suitability of software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV) for deployment within operational technology environment. NTCSA says a key consideration is whether it can leverage SDN and NFV to establish redundant paths for mission-critical or high-priority traffic. Accordingly, it wishes to understand how these technologies can be used to simplify network management and how redundancy mechanisms can be implemented through their integration. “In particular, the focus is on how SDN and NFV can work together to dynamically create and manage resilient, redundant links that ensure high availability (99.999%) and continuity of service for mission-critical traffic,” it explained.