South Africa win?
Long time readers of this thread may remember that the South African government put out an international tender for bids on a national ID card system for its 45 million residents in an AFIS-type system. The winner would put together a system that would check applicants for government benefits against a mass data base of fingerprints, and provide encrypted fingerprint ID on national ID smart cards. The value of the contract is about $175 million.
It attracted bids from TRW (DBII?), Lockheed Martin, ICL-Sagem, PQ Africa - Printrak, and Unisys-NEC. The finalists were PQ Africa-Printrak and Unisys-NEC, with the losers threatening to sue, but deciding against it.
From South Africa Business Day, February 22, 1999: "The tender went to the MarPless consortium, with technology firm Plessey and Japanese trading house Marubeni as managers; Unisys as systems integrator; Japan's NEC supplying fingerprint technology; and Polaroid producing ID cards." The project will be installed over a five year period.
No confirmation available that NEC is using IDX technology, but it looks probable to me. Unisys-IDT is unlikely to be a meaningful connection in the AFIS universe. |
