Finance and Economic Opportunities
With reference to the support of small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the province:
- How did PPE procurement in the Western Cape benefit SMMEs expressed as a (i) percentage and (ii) rand value and (b) what measures has his Department put in place to assist SMMEs to register on the provincial database in order to tender for PPE procurement?
- (a) PPE procurement as a Percentage and Rand Value:
PPE expenditure by Western Cape Government Departments and Entities to SMMEs for April 2020 - December 2020 amounts to R658 452 380,32 or 83.18% of total PPE expenditure.
Turnover Category | Payment Total | % Total |
Other Entities | R 133 106 580.68 | 16,82 |
Micro Enterprises | R 221 907 329.36 | 28,03 |
Small Enterprises | R 436 545 050.96 | 55,15 |
Total | R 791 558 961.00 | 100,00% |
- The Provincial Treasury proactively engages with suppliers to register on the databases and to provide departments and municipalities with commodity specific information in respect of supplier names, quantities available, lead times for delivery and where applicable pricing in respect of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items to assist departments and municipalities in responding to the COVID-19 disaster from a procurement perspective. The methodology applied to this process is as follows:
- Identification of supplier base: utilisation of the supplier databases (CSD & WCSEB), industry sectors such as Cape Clothing and Textile Cluster and ad hoc emails received from potential suppliers via the Ministry/ departments etc.;
- Research & documenting item specific survey: research on specifications with subject matter experts; determining what information must be gathered via the survey, documenting questions and developing the survey via MS forms;
- Request for Information issued via MS Teams: RFI sent to identified suppliers via email with survey link. Suppliers were given 48 hours to respond, however survey is kept open as database will be updated continuously;
- Results & analytics of responses to categorise suppliers: results are analysed and suppliers are categorised using Business Intelligence tools in respect of quantities, items available per supplier and lead times to identify to whom the RFQ must be sent;
- RFQ issued for pricing information where applicable: pricing only requested from suppliers for PPE items and not cloth masks as prices may differ depending on bespoke requirements per department. The e-Procurement System to be used to request pricing if the supplier/s are registered on the supplier databases. If not, then the RFQ will be sent manually to suppliers;
- Database of information – RFI results and pricing (where applicable) is consolidated into a database of information for departments and municipalities to utilise when following its own internal process by filtering the information required on the database. Where applicable benchmark pricing will be included in the database of information. Specific detail will be provided in each database in terms of the process to follow as well as important issues to note;
- Communication via MS teams/ emails: a MS teams group has been created with departmental CFOs and SCM heads as a communication mechanism and the databases will be placed on MS Teams. For municipalities the communication mechanism will be via email.
In addition, Provincial Treasury provides support to suppliers, including SMMEs, through the Western Cape Client Support Centre, a helpdesk function which normally offers email, telephonic and walk-in support, but which is currently limited to email, telephonic and MS teams channels during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This dedicated resource assists suppliers on registration and compliancy requirements in order for them to do business with Western Cape Government, and also manages complaints received from suppliers that are escalated to the Provincial Treasury.
