Pretoria - The Department of Trade and Industry has dismissed reports that it has reached an out of court settlement with an IT company.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the department said it had noted with concern media reports suggesting that it had reached a settlement with Valor IT after the company brought an interim interdict on an urgent basis against Minister Rob Davies, the Director General, CIPRO and the CEO of CIPRO.
The interim interdict sought to prevent the implementation of the Director General to cancel the electronic content management (ECM) tender that was awarded to the company on 3 February 2009.
"These reports are devoid of any truth and none of the figures reported are correct," said the department's spokesperson, Sidwell Medupi.
The application was heard last November but the matter was not finalised as the presiding judge in the matter requested parties to explore settling the matter.
"After entering into negotiations in good faith, the parties were unable to reach a settlement. Acting on both legal advice and advice of the Auditor General's office, the dti could not find any reasonable grounds or any legal basis to pay any further money to Valor IT," he explained.
The department said the demands made by the company were considered to be unreasonable, grossly excessive and lacking any legal basis.
"The forensic investigation by both the Auditor General and an independent firm, instructed by the dti, advised that the awarding of the tender was irregular. Any further payment to Valor IT is accordingly irregular.
"The dti is of the view that any settlement must be justifiable on legal grounds and must be in line with various public service regulations. There is therefore no settlement, and legal counsel for the dti has requested the court to make a determination on the validity or otherwise of Valor IT's claim."
