SARS cancels R1,5bn cargo scanner tender

cape town — after a lengthy tendering process, the south african revenue service (sars) has decided to cancel a r1,5bn tender to procure container cargo scanning equipment and restart the process to acquire the scanners using a different method.

the scanners are necessary to improve customs control and secure trade in and out of sa and southern africa.

they will replace the manual inspections currently undertaken and enhance customs officials’ ability to identify illicit imports and exports.

sars said yesterday that it would now purchase the scanners directly instead of outsourcing the task.

it has also decided not to outsource scanning operations either, believing it can cut the cost of the equipment by about two-thirds of initial estimates.

a new tender for the supply and maintenance of scanners would be issued soon, it said.

the cabinet gave the go-ahead last year for the acquisition of scanners, in line with the world customs organisation requirement that “nonintrusive” inspection equipment be used to check the contents of containers without unloading them.

installation of the equipment at sa’s ports and border posts will make them preferred channels for exports to international markets.

sa also participates in the us customs and border protection’s container security initiative.

five bidders submitted proposals by the may 2005 cut-off date, and three were short-listed in september: bonisa scanning solutions in association with the uk’s raboscan; safika smith consortium with foreign supplier smith; and thibela scanning. they submitted their best and final offers in december.

the bidders could consider a claim for damages for all the money invested in the tender process, which began late in 2004, but sars spokesman logan wort said the tender documents clearly stipulated that sars reserved the right not to award the tender.

“we feel confident that we have acted within our rights,” wort said.

the short-listed bidders will be invited to submit bids for the new tender, which would be issued in the next few weeks.

wort rejected any suggestion that suspicions of corruption had anything to do with the cancellation of the tender. he said the tender process had been audited separately by the auditor-general’s office and an independent senior counsel, both of whom had found it “above board” and fair to all bidders.

“we had to decide in terms of the public finance management act whether the bids offered value for money,” wort said.

wort said sars had decided after a rigorous evaluation process that a tender to purchase scanning equipment and services to operate it would not be cost effective.

more than 50% of the cost would be taken up not by the scanners, but by the outsourcing of a “simple operation”, wort said.