SARS tender split three ways

Johannesburg, 19 Nov 2003

SARS has relaunched the tender that was the subject of recent corruption claims, but split it three ways to minimise the risk of a repeat problem.

"What we've done is that previously, we have had one very large tender," says Ken Jarvis, SARS CIO. "Now we've broken our requirements down into three individual tenders, one for desktops and notebooks, one for printers and scanners, and one for servers."

The new tenders are RFT 23/2003 - application and enterprise servers, RFT 22/2003 - printer and scanner supply, and RFT 21/2003 - workstation desktop and notebook supply. Further information on these tenders is available on the SARS Web site.

The reasons for the splitting of the tender are twofold. The first is that the previous all-encompassing specifications were drawing complicated responses from a range of companies.

"We were getting some very confusing responses," says Jarvis. "In one instance, we received a response from a print organisation who were having to respond to unnecessary questions in the process."

The second reason is that SARS is hoping that the split will dissuade anyone considering another attempt at corruption. "This will help us minimise any potential repeat," says Jarvis.

The previous tender for desktop equipment was scrapped after an outside agency approached one of the bidders, offering to swing the tender process in their favour for a commission of 2.5%