The State IT Agency (SITA) has improved its turnaround times for tenders, with each now taking an average of 73.74 days to be awarded, it says.
The agency says, in the last three years, it has issued 163 tenders, of which 86 have been awarded, 63 are under evaluation and only 14 cancelled. “Tenders are cancelled for various reasons, but are done so in consultation with all parties,” a spokesperson for the agency states.
SITA has improved its turnaround times and its overall average turnaround time is well within internationally accepted standards, the spokesperson adds.
Under fire
The agency recently came under fire from the Black IT Forum (BITF), which claimed it is marginalising small empowered companies. Its protests resulted in the agency cancelling a tender for the provisioning of cabling.
Sonwabo Mdwaba, CEO of Sive Communication and a BITF representative, says: “SITA thinks it can dictate things to the industry.”
He alleges the agency does not have small companies at heart, and that its processes and tender requirements are actually hampering the progress of small, black IT firms in the industry.
SITA's communications department did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations that the agency had disadvantaged small companies. SITA's chief of regulatory affairs and procurement Peter Pedlar is leaving the agency at the end of this month, a move that is concerning to the BITF, says Mdwaba.
However, spokesperson Anthea Summers has said the agency “has mechanisms in place to deal with this situation”. She also confirmed that former Department of Defence procurement chief Bruce Ramfolo will take over the position - as interim head of this portfolio - from the beginning of November.
Improvements
It adds that 60.3% of goods and services, worth about R1.6 billion, was purchased from black economic empowered (BEE) vendors, or vendors that have BEE credentials. At provincial level, 60.87% of its purchases were acquired from BEE vendors.
During the financial year 2006/7, it said it did not achieve its target of 78 days, although no reasons for missing its aim were disclosed. SITA added in the annual report that 86% of the total number of tenders awarded went to BEE vendors, or vendors that have BEE credentials.
Half cancelled?
However, while the agency claims to have only cancelled two tenders in 2007, eight last year and four this year, an ITWeb investigation reveals that - of the 575 tenders listed on SITA's Web site - 47% have been cancelled since the agency's inception in 1999.
ITWeb also uncovered that 33.9% of tenders on the agency's site have been awarded and 18% are still under evaluation. Some of the tenders still under evaluation date back to 2007.
SITA says 14 tenders from 2007 are still under evaluation, and 21 tenders issued last year are also awaiting a decision. The agency did not explain why adjudication of these tenders was taking so long.
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