Adverts for government tenders will no longer be placed in newspapers, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The president, during his reply to the State of the Nation Address debate, said the use of a tender portal would be compulsory for all departments from April 1.<\/p>\n
“This means that all tenders will be advertised in one place and will be accessed free of charge.<\/p>\n
“Government tenders will thus no longer be advertised in newspapers and this will be another cost saver for government,” Zuma said to applause and cheers from ANC MPs.<\/p>\n
The office of the chief procurement officer was also operational and all suppliers doing business with government would only have to register once off.<\/p>\n
“This reduces the cost for suppliers as they do not have to go to multiple institutions if they wish to do business with government.”<\/p>\n
Zuma said statistics showed that procurement reforms were already bearing fruits and saving the state hundreds of millions of Rands.<\/p>\n
“For example school building designs have been standardised nationally… we will no longer be building schools at a cost above R30 million,” he said.<\/p>\n