The reason 30% of tenders issued this financial year have been binned is because bidders could not meet its standards, says the State IT Agency (SITA).
CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola was responding to industry complaints that a great number of tenders are cancelled without a clear explanation. He says 70% of all tenders that were published in this financial year have been successfully concluded.
"We too are concerned about the remaining 30%. And, sadly, the largest contributor to the cancellation rate is, firstly, that bidders are unable to meet the standard and, secondly, that the work that is presented does not comply with our specifications."
Mosley-Lefatola says, as a result, the tender is not awarded, which essentially amounts to a cancellation.
To remedy the situation, a key focus area has been to step up its corporate engagements with industry and small, medium and micro enterprises through which SITA addresses this area and engages with them in a bid to improve the compliance of bidders, says Mosley-Lefatola.
The CEO adds that a full debriefing session is held for all who participated in the process and all service providers are given a full debriefing on why the tender has not been awarded.
Clamping down
In 2011, Mosley-Lefatola became the agency's 15th CEO since its inception. He says the agency has made progress in cutting down on fraud and tightening supply-chain management since the start of a turnaround plan two-and-a-half years ago.
Almost three years ago, when the current executive team was appointed, the agency was in disarray. It had been plagued by a lack of top-level stability and had also been beleaguered by large-scale corruption and irregular procurement practices.
Every tender SITA has issued in the past nine years is under investigation by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), to determine whether any of its staff were involved in unlawful conduct, or wasted the entity's money.
The probe, announced last year, was prompted by various earlier investigations, the Department of Public Service and Administration has said. SIU spokesman Boy Ndala has said the investigation is still in the planning phase.
According to SITA's latest annual report, the SIU is investigating one case relating to procurement irregularities. At the end of March last year, there were 22 cases under investigation by internal audit relating to procurement irregularities, conflicts of interest, as well as alleged irregularities in the human resource and payroll departments.
As of the end of March, an internal audit had completed 15 investigations for the period under review. The completed investigations related to procurement irregularities, conflicts of interest and alleged irregularities in the human resource and payroll departments.
Of the 15 investigations that have been investigated, two led to disciplinary action, nine cases saw recommendations actioned, and four were closed due to the unavailability of information.
Mosley-Lefatola says, in terms of fraud investigations, four were investigated and dealt with internally and all four employees were subsequently dismissed. Where relevant, SITA has recovered its funds and the cases are before the courts, he adds.
SITA is also ramping up its staffing structure, as its new organogram has 3 178 positions, of which 2 665 have been filled. "We are pushing real hard to bring closure to this part of the SITA turnaround."
Share