The State IT Agency (SITA) will "develop a memory" for vendors that don't deliver as promised, and government development objectives will not be deflected, public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said on Friday.
Speaking at the signing of a three-year deal between SITA and Microsoft, Fraser-Moleketi said the cutthroat environment in government bidding would be changed, while government will be protected from exploitation.
The recently renamed SITA Information Technology Acquisition Centre (SITAC) will be tasked with filtering vendors on large government contracts handled through SITA.
Established IT vendors wishing to do business with SITA will have to subcontract 35% of their government business to black empowerment companies and 25% to small and medium enterprises, she said.
Support is to be given to locally produced goods and services, and companies complying with the regulations of the Revenue Service, Department of Labour and Department of Trade and Industry are to be favoured above non-compliant counterparts.
Fraser-Moleketi said SITA's supplier selection will also look at the past performance of bidding vendors.
"We will no longer carry the can for suppliers who have let us down," she said.
The spreading of malicious rumours by unsuccessful bidders, as well as what the minister termed "proactive whispering campaigns" are to be squashed through debriefings on the award of business to both successful and unsuccessful bidders.
Outlining the functions of SITAC, Fraser-Moleketi said the centre would be involved in planned e-government, and also alluded to plans for a government Internet service provider (ISP). "We are also looking at an Internet service provider and disaster recovery systems," she said.
The Gauteng provincial government said in February that it plans to a launch its own ISP for the GautengOnline.com project.
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