NEWS
9
City begins phase 2 of
e-procurement portal
development
The second phase of development of the City of Cape Town’s
e-procurement portal was initiated on 1 August 2018.
The portal allows for more convenient bidding on
contracts with a maximum value of R200 000 and
helps cut costs for the City and its suppliers. The range
of services that suppliers can bid on via the portal has
also been expanded — this now includes plumbing.
This portal serves to cut some of the red tape and
administrative costs associated with bidding on local
government contracts. In addition, a number
of new services were made eligible for online
bidding processes.
Phase 2 of the e-procurement portal will see the addition
of the following functions to the electronic portal, aimed at
improving the supplier experience over the coming months:
Accounts payable
• Online invoice status tracking
• Online statement uploading.
Supply chain management
• Online purchase order tracking
• Online purchase order acknowledgement
• Online request for quotation (RFQ) submissions.
Furthermore, the list of services that suppliers can bid
on online from 1 August 2018 has been expanded to
include the following:
• Plumbing
• Chemicals
• Medical supplies
• Refreshments
• Furniture
• Stationery
• Automotive spares
• Vehicle hiring services.
The e-procurement portal already caters for the supply
of clothing and building hardware, IT hardware, tools and
machinery, civil engineering contracts, and electrical work.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
Before approving a roll-out of commodities, the City
held supplier workshops on the look and feel of the new
system and encourages relevant suppliers to attend
weekly training sessions at the Media City building where
IT and supply chain management professionals assist
suppliers to upload documentation and successfully
register their businesses on the e-procurement system.
Some 673 suppliers have thus far attended one-on-one
training sessions with Supplier Management to assist
them with registration.
Since the portal was launched on 1 November 2017,
some 3 452 RFQs have been advertised, and 12 440
responses have been received. Furthermore, 439
suppliers have been registered on the portal and show
activity on the system.
“The older paper-based system of supplier registration
entailed collecting and submitting application forms
at the Civic Centre and then updating the supplier’s
records manually with compliance documentation.
After registration, the RFQ submission took place
by downloading and printing the price schedule,
delivering quotes (to the Civic Centre), the manual
capturing of prices, and ultimately the archiving
of documentation. This process was very time-
consuming and involved a higher risk of errors in data
capturing and misplacement of documents, which
can drastically affect the length of the supply chain
process,” says the mayoral committee member for
Finance, Cllr Johan van der Merwe.
“Furthermore, the system makes it more attractive and
convenient to do business with the City, as suppliers
no longer have to print bids and travel to the Civic
Centre to submit them, and can view open RFQs more
easily, in line with our mandate to facilitate economic
opportunities. This also helps encourage suppliers
to modernise and adopt a digital method of doing
business,” concludes Cllr Van der Merwe. PA
All interested suppliers
can visit https://eservices.
capetown.gov.za/irj/portal/
to register and follow the
prompts. All suppliers can
register online.
November 2018 Volume 24 I Number 9