Finance Minister Nlanhla Nene chose the Eastern Cape to launch the national central supplier database (CSD), which will change the way business is done with government.
The CSD deadline is April 1 next year, and yesterday Nene warned: “Don’t miss it.”
He said the database held out a “huge possibility” for the reduction of tender corruption and a healthy increase in savings.
He pinpointed the problem of civil servants doing business with government, saying the registration process for CSD would pick up directorships and “inter-links”.
Speaking at the East London Industrial Development Zone (Elidz) with Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas and Eastern Cape Planning and Finance MEC Sakhumzi Somyo at his side, Nene called for the R500-billion government spend on procurement a year to be used “wisely as a force for the greater good of South Africa”.
From April 1, all national and provincial government business will be done with suppliers successfully registered and loaded onto the database.
The deadline for municipalities to get linked to CSD is July 1.
The R9-million platform, www.csd.gov.za, went public in April this year and Nene said they expected 250000 businesses to register.
Somyo said the task of linking the province to the CSD had been “torrid, but today we are launching it here and we are proud to have reached agreement with the Ministry”.
All business with government would soon be done “with no hassle” through a “single portal”.
CSD would “cut away a high level of risk”.
The system would throw out government employees, especially those with a “link to SARS”, trying to get government business.
Nene said getting onto the CSD would require a thorough check for compliance and screening including obtaining SARS tax clearances.
On the plus side, once a supplier was registered and had a CSD supplier number, repeat business would require no further compliance.
The database would also allow Treasury officials to see who was not paying their invoices within the legally required 30-day period and would help to catch double invoicing cheats.
National Treasury chief director of supply chain management Schalk Human said the system would be linked to a performance assessment of suppliers.
Provincial officials in health and co-operative government and traditional affairs departments, who asked what would happen to provincial databases, were told by Human that these were in an abysmal shape.
Of 160000 businesses registered on the old Logus system, the data was of “such bad quality” that only 29000 were uploaded onto the CSD.
“We cannot load incomplete or incorrect data,” he said. “We are moving away from paper. 15% of tax certificates are fraudulent,” he said. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
Nene launches supplier database
The CSD deadline is April 1 next year, and yesterday Nene warned: “Don’t miss it.”
He said the database held out a “huge possibility” for the reduction of tender corruption and a healthy increase in savings.
He pinpointed the problem of civil servants doing business with government, saying the registration process for CSD would pick up directorships and “inter-links”.
Speaking at the East London Industrial Development Zone (Elidz) with Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas and Eastern Cape Planning and Finance MEC Sakhumzi Somyo at his side, Nene called for the R500-billion government spend on procurement a year to be used “wisely as a force for the greater good of South Africa”.
From April 1, all national and provincial government business will be done with suppliers successfully registered and loaded onto the database.
The deadline for municipalities to get linked to CSD is July 1.
The R9-million platform, www.csd.gov.za, went public in April this year and Nene said they expected 250000 businesses to register.
Somyo said the task of linking the province to the CSD had been “torrid, but today we are launching it here and we are proud to have reached agreement with the Ministry”.
All business with government would soon be done “with no hassle” through a “single portal”.
CSD would “cut away a high level of risk”.
The system would throw out government employees, especially those with a “link to SARS”, trying to get government business.
Nene said getting onto the CSD would require a thorough check for compliance and screening including obtaining SARS tax clearances.
On the plus side, once a supplier was registered and had a CSD supplier number, repeat business would require no further compliance.
The database would also allow Treasury officials to see who was not paying their invoices within the legally required 30-day period and would help to catch double invoicing cheats.
National Treasury chief director of supply chain management Schalk Human said the system would be linked to a performance assessment of suppliers.
Provincial officials in health and co-operative government and traditional affairs departments, who asked what would happen to provincial databases, were told by Human that these were in an abysmal shape.
Of 160000 businesses registered on the old Logus system, the data was of “such bad quality” that only 29000 were uploaded onto the CSD.
“We cannot load incomplete or incorrect data,” he said. “We are moving away from paper. 15% of tax certificates are fraudulent,” he said. — mikel@dispatch.co.za
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