Widespread ‘tender splitting’ in government procurement flagged by SIU
The SIU said the practice is common to avoid open competitive tenders.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has flagged widespread "tender splitting" in government procurement, revealing that this is not an isolated issue but a common trend in investigations. Tender splitting refers to the practice of splitting orders to circumvent competitive tender processes, often through the use of requests for quotations (RFQs) for procurements below R500 000.
This trend has been identified in various government departments and state entities, where contracts are split to avoid open competitive tenders. The SIU's spokesperson, Selby Makgotho, noted that this is a common trend observed in their investigations, often accompanied by the splitting of orders. This practice is particularly concerning given that it was revealed through The Citizen's reporting that the Department of Transport procured livestreaming and media services through seven separate RFQs, each below the R1 million threshold that would normally trigger an open competitive bidding process.
Brief written by urgent.news from The Citizen's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
