The outcry over the extension of a transport tender awarded to one of Schabir Shaik's companies has taken a new turn with the ministry confirming that some of the contract's conditions were not met.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe has said in reply to a parliamentary question that the tender conditions for the supply of barcode scanners to read the credit card driving licences were not met by Prodiba, one of Shaik's companies that won the contract in 1997.

The department renewed the R650 million contract this year despite the controversy surrounding Shaik.

In a written reply to a question from the DA, Radebe said the department had decided to procure card-readers "that would make use of the latest technology".

These, he added, were viewed as a better investment.

Radebe said 1 000 card verification devices had been supplied at R28 600 each.

He could not say how much more these had cost than those in the original supply agreement with Prodiba.

Yesterday, the DA's Stuart Farrow said he was "very perturbed" by the events.

"Reports have also indicated that the reason the original scanners could not effectively read the credit card licence barcodes was that these were printed one third too small to be readable.

"This means millions of South Africans were put to unnecessary trouble and expense to obtain utterly useless driver's licences."

Also, the scanners were originally priced at between R3 000 and R4 000.

The department should have dealt more carefully with the criteria in the original tender to avoid the extra costs, Farrow said.

"It seems Prodiba has not adhered to its original contract and that there can be no justification for the renewal of the deal for a further five years."

"The extra costs of the new scanners are no doubt being picked up by taxpayers, while Prodiba has been awarded a further R650m deal."

Wrenelle Stander, director-general in the department, said she did not know if it was true that the original scanners were much cheaper.

She said she would comment in full once she'd had a chance to look at the DA's statement.

With acknowledgements to Sheena Adams and the Cape Times.