NEC wins PAP town councils’ tender bid
[UPDATE 3 Apr, 1pm: Adding in NEC Asia Pacific winning town councils' bid]
Japanese company NEC Asia Pacific has won the latest tender exercise to manage the computer systems of People’s Action Party’s (PAP) town councils after Action Information Management (AIM) declined to take part in the bid.
According to a report by The Straits Times Wednesday, NEC edged out bids by HCL Singapore and NCS to win the seven-year, $16.8 million contract. It will develop and end-to-end computer management system for 14 town councils under the PAP.
Dr Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of PAP's town councils, said in a statement that NEC was chosen based on recommendations by bid evaluators Deloitte and Touche Enterprise Risk Services, as the company had the lowest-priced bid and used latest technology for its system.
Managing director of NEC Asia Pacific Kok Quee Lim, said to Yahoo! Singapore, "NEC recognizes that this is beyond just IT implementation. It is an opportunity for us to deliver an efficient and integrated service to residents in these town councils, and we are confident that our experience in delivering mission-critical system to both public and commercial sector will ensure success in this project.”
AIM decided not to take part in the latest tender exercise to manage the computer systems of PAP town councils, according to a statement by the company cited by The Straits Times on 27 February.
The company had been managing computer systems of PAP town councils and was embroiled in controversy since questions over its operations were raised by Workers’ Party chief Sylvia Lim and the WP-run Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC).
"As part of its support to the town councils in system migration, it has amongst other things, helped the PAP town councils prepare the documents for the current tender. The objective of the tender is to select a software vendor to develop the new generation software for the town councils and then to maintain the system for a number of years,” said the statement.
The contract between the PAP town councils and AIM, a PAP-owned company, ended 30 March. A tender notice was placed in The Straits Times Classifieds on 4 Feb, asking for bids from applicants to build and execute a “fully operational integrated town council management system with operation support and maintenance”.
The tender closed on 4 March.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong ordered a probe into the sale of PAP town council software to AIM in early January after questions were raised over the deal. The review was expected to take a month or two. No findings from the review have been released yet.
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COMMENT: Review of AIM deal good, but doesn’t that pose another conflict of interest?
