Top ICT tenders: SABC tackles governance, risk and compliance

Activity on National Treasury’s eTenders Portal leant towards lower-value quotation requests last week, as government departments reassessed their procurement priorities based on finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s latest budget proposal.

Given the somewhat dull week, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) takes the spotlight with a request for information on an integrated system for internal audit and governance, risk and compliance (GRC).

The move follows the broadcaster turning its 2022/23 disclaimed outcome of its annual report into an unqualified audit in 2023/24. While this demonstrates an improvement in financial management, the company’s financial stability still remains in question, as a new funding model has yet to be determined.

Pointing the Public Finance Management Act, the SABC notes it is required to implement an effective and efficient system of risk management.

“Procurement of an electronic system will assist the SABC not to use manual and error-prone avenues through Microsoft applications like MS Word and MS Excel,” it says in the invitation.

The broadcaster says its GRC function consists of four departments: enterprise risk management, compliance management, internal control and business continuity management. These GRC departments are currently using separate and distinct electronic application systems of input, processing, output and reporting, it says. What’s more, its internal audit function has a separate system from GRC.

“Internal Audit’s Audit Plan is risk-based and the non-integration of its system together with that of the GRC function, may have caused extra effort of sourcing and providing information between these two related divisions when there are systems in the market which may enable seamless processes and procedures for the same purpose with less effort, cost and time saving,” says the SABC.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The South African Revenue Service wishes to appoint a service provider for the Cisco server room kit for the three new offices in Brooklyn and surrounding areas. This engagement will include the supply, licensing and support preparation of Cisco network equipment to establish a reliable and scalable network infrastructure at the sites, the organisation says.

• Limpopo’s Department of Health is advertising for the supply, delivery, installation, commissioning and maintenance of a radiology picture archiving communication system (PACS) and radiology information system (RIS), to all health institutions – such as tertiary, regional and district hospitals – of the Limpopo Department of Health.

• Eskom is inviting bids from proficient Maximo service providers for the provision of maintenance and support of its meter asset management system (MAMS). The contract will include application enhancements to align with the utility’s evolving business needs and its integration with other existing systems.

• The Department of Mobility in the Western Cape invites service providers accredited on SITA transversal contract RFB 1183/2022 to apply to join a panel for the provision of ICT-related personnel/resources. The department says that as cities and transportation networks become increasingly complex, the need for IT professionals within the department has never been more critical. Its current needs include strategic and operational management support, the integrated transport hub initiative, the government motor transport initiative and the traffic administration and licensing system.

• Transnet requires technical services for the migration from SAP ECC6 to SAP S/4HANA. The company says the solution is primarily used as an enterprise resource planning platform and forms the bedrock of its financial, asset management, procurement and people management systems.

• The South African National Space Agency is advertising for the software renewal of its Altaro cloud backup solution. This includes the renewal of 325 Altaro Office 365 backup licences, renewal of six SMA/maintenance for VM back up for Hyper-V and two new Altaro VM Backup for Hyper-V.

• Sansa also wishes to appoint a suitably qualified and competent service provider for the design and development of enterprise architecture that will assist it to achieve its current and future goals.

• The Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA) seeks a service provider for the upgrade and maintenance of the Landfolio system. The application portal was implemented as part of a broader initiative within PASA to streamline and digitise all business processes, both client-facing and online. It is used to accept petroleum and environmental-related licences and permits, electronically.

• The National Health Laboratory Service wishes to procure ECM Opentext software licence maintenance, including service and technical support in an existing private local cloud-based model. The solution was implemented during the 2013/14 financial year to address several needs, including compliance, enhanced collaboration, communication, cost reduction and digitisation through green IT initiatives. It has played a key role in automating business processes across departments such as HR, finance, supply chain and laboratory services, contributing significantly to its digital transformation.