National Treasury has introduced the e-Tender Publication portal and central supplier database (CSD) - an initiative of the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO).
The e-Tender Publication portal, launched on 1 April, will be a single platform for the publication of tenders, aimed at eliminating duplication and fragmentation of notices for government tenders. It can be accessed at www.etenders.gov.za.
The CSD will be a consolidated list of all supplier information for national, provincial and local government, says treasury, adding the e-Tender Publication portal is intended to simplify, standardise and automate the procurement process.
The initiative was first announced by finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, during his budget speech in February, when he stated government is set to introduce measures aimed at stamping out fraud and other issues in its supply chain.
"National and provincial departments will publish their tenders in accordance with the demand plans for acquisition of goods, services and infrastructure. The tenders for the 2015/16 financial year should start going through towards the end of April 2015 for procurement plans that have been approved," says treasury.
"Municipalities will start to publish their tenders on the portal on 1 July, to coincide with the start of the financial year for municipalities."
The portal will carry tender notices, accompanied by official tender documents and relevant terms of reference or other description of functionality that may be applicable, and the publication of award notices and minimum information prescribed by the OCPO.
The e-Tender portal will be managed by the OCPO, which sets the policy on content, functionality and coordinates the administration with users at national, provincial and local government level. The State Information Technology Agency (SITA) will be responsible for technical support, maintenance and hosting of the portal, says treasury.
The portal is a first step towards implementing government's eProcurement system, as part of the Integrated Financial Management System aimed at reducing duplication, fragmentation and inefficiency in government tender publications.
"The benefits of the portal include cost reduction and effort associated with traditional tender publications and an improvement in transparency and accountability with regards to the award of government tenders."
Efficient service delivery
Treasury notes a uniform supply chain management system for government is essential to optimise the efficiency of service delivery. "But currently there is no single consolidated comprehensive supplier database, and consequently, information related to the compliance requirements is duplicated during procurement processes, the processing of payments, and audit procedures, to name but a few."
"The CSD will, therefore, reduce duplication of effort and cost for both business and government, while enabling electronic procurement processes.
"The CSD will have interfaces to the South African Revenue Service to enable tax clearance status verification of suppliers throughout the Procure-to-Pay process and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission for vetting of business registration and business ownership."
Suppliers currently registered on a supplier database of any organ of state will be automatically transferred to the supplier database by 31 March 2016. New suppliers will have the option to make use of the self-registration portal of the CSD from 1 September 2015.
The benefit for the private sector will be a reduction of red tape and administrative effort when doing business with government, according to treasury, which adds compliance requirements will be easy to meet for suppliers that are in good standing on the various compliance requirements.
"Modernising supply chain management through technological innovation will enable government to reduce the administrative burden for both government and business, and improve the monitoring of procurement patterns, contracts and prices."
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