Government's centralised IT procurement arm, the State IT Agency (SITA), has acknowledged challenges that have affected its ability to turn around tenders quickly, but says it is making progress in clearing the backlog.
Last week, ITWeb revealed that tenders were taking up to two years to be awarded, because of constant top-level reshuffling at SITA. The delay has thrown the ICT industry into turmoil, and negatively impacted service delivery.
According to a consolidated list of bids on SITA's Web site, the agency issued 68 requests for quotation last year, of which more than half, 47, are still being evaluated, 13 have been binned, another seven are still open to invitations, and only one tender was awarded. The consolidated list does not have any information available about tenders issued this year.
In October 2009, the agency claimed it had improved its turnaround times for tenders, with each taking an average of 73.74 days to be awarded.
Amitha Ramlal, SITA's acting GM of corporate communications, says there have been issues with turning around tenders quickly. However, she says SITA “plans to improve tender turnaround times and can assure the market that the trend is changing”.
The agency has implemented a new business model and a permanent executive to oversee its procurement arm, Ramlal says. At the end of March, 40% of the backlog had been sorted out.
Revitalised
She says some aspects that have hindered the process include its “tender evaluation processes being characterised by cross-functional dependencies”.
“While this might have an impact on certain SITA services, the long-term vision of the turnaround strategy is to reposition SITA as a high performing, customer-focused service provider,” says Ramlal.
Ramlal concedes that the rate of top-level turnover has also been an issue, as has the agency's “technical resources”, which have affected its supply chain management (SCM) environment.
SITA has been plagued by a lack of top-level stability, as several permanent and acting CEOs have come and gone since the agency's inception. The agency has also been beleaguered by large-scale corruption and irregular procurement practices.
In January, the agency finally appointed a permanent CEO, when Blake Mosley-Lefatola assumed control of the parastatal. His appointment followed that of another senior executive, COO Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, last November.
Related story:
SITA tender delays cost industry
Share