Top ICT tenders: Home affairs targets records digitisation

The Department of Home Affairs has over 340 million paper records and will prioritise the digitisation of records relating to birth, marriage, death and amendments. (Image source: 123RF)

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A pre-long weekend rush makes for an interesting round-up from National Treasury’s eTenders Portal, with a mix of requests from national departments, metro municipalities and state-owned entities.

The Department of Home Affairs takes the top spot with its invitation to service providers, joint ventures and consortiums to bid for the digitisation of civics services, immigration and other departmental records. The tender is limited to service providers accredited through SITA RFB contract 1183.

“The department plans to convert all related records through digitising hard copy records to electronic format for easier handling, search, retrieval, storage and archiving thereof and subsequently embarked on a project for this purpose. This project will enable the optimum realisation of its core mandate, and as such, records will be easily accessed for service delivery purposes,” it states.

Home affairs notes that after a period of planning, provisioning and initiating, the process of digitising civics records from paper, books and microfilm is now fully operational, with established infrastructure, processes and people. However, the original digitisation of civics records contract is nearing its expiry.

The department says the following requirements of the initial tender have been delivered:

• Four fully-equipped digitisation centres (Brits, Silverton, BVR and Church Square)
• Scanning and validation of records
• Archiving of original documents
• Training of graduates
• Fully-developed workflow and business process per digitisation hub and media type
• Fully-developed human resources SOPs based on DHA policies

“To ensure uninterrupted service, preserve and further the gains achieved, the DHA now invites bids from qualified service providers to assume responsibility for the ongoing operation, maintenance, support and reporting of the existing digitisation project, its related technologies and staff,” it says.

The department reveals it has more than 340 million paper records; however, a decision was taken to prioritise the digitisation of records relating to birth, marriage, death and amendments.

“The identified category of records dates back from the early 1800s, which necessitate care and reliable systems that will bear tolerance for digitisation purposes. These records accumulate daily depending on the volume of applications received. It should be mentioned that the department registers more than a million births per annum and this further affects the growth of the current 340 million records. One record has an average of nine pages,” it points out.

Other records to be digitised include:

The project seeks to contribute to employment creation goals and strategic priorities of the Presidential Employment Stimulus (PES) by acquiring graduates for three years.

“This project aims to enhance employability of graduates, thereby reducing the unemployment rate. This will contribute to both improved service delivery and graduates’ enhancement and development,” the department states.

However, existing staff are to be taken over and employed by the successful service provider. This includes young graduates already employed and those still to be recruited for the project.

The department will hold a non-compulsory briefing on 13 April over Microsoft Teams, before submissions close on 30 April.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The City of Cape Town wishes to appoint a service provider to supply electronic courses and end-user training for its HR and other business systems rollout. The metro explains it is set to upgrade to more advanced, market-leading technologies as part of its comprehensive digital transformation, streamline processes, enhance data management, and improve overall service delivery and satisfaction. The city says it’s invested in SAP’s learning solution (LSO) to bolster the administrative aspects and enhance training management through better management information systems and accurate reporting. This training tender is expected to fully leverage this investment by employing the LSO to its full potential. The city estimates it has approximately 32 000 employees and 15 000 to 25 000 employees in the Expanded Public Works Programme.

• The city is also calling for the supply, installation and maintenance of an emergency policing and incident control system, an investigative case management system and a contraventions system. The implementation will involve a transition from the current customised solution developed on the SAP CRM 7.0, to a new commercial-off-the-shelf solution to be procured as part of this tender, it says. The metro notes it is South Africa’s second-largest metropole, the legislative capital of South Africa and the provincial capital of the Western Cape.

• The Department of Defence wishes to outsource the installation of internet/WiFi services at the South African National War College, Saint George Hotel. The scope includes 1 000Mbps business Frogfoot fibre, including router and static IP, as well as 500/250Mbps failover fibre.

• An outsourced service provider is also sought for the installation of internet services at the department’s Personnel Service School. The scope of work includes 200Mbs OS dedicated fibre link with 2TB MTN LTE failover.

• The South African Police Service is inviting bids for the supply, delivery and product training for terrestrial trunked (TETRA) portable terminals for Gauteng, Eastern Cape and other SAPS divisions through its technology management services division. A complete sample, including radio, antenna, battery, battery charger, belt clip, programming software and programming cable or kit of the radio terminals that the bidder intends to offer will be requested from shortlisted bidders.

• Postbank is re-advertising for the acquisition and implementation of a ready to use integrated modern banking system including some customisation. The requirement is a result of its wish to diversify the instruments given to customers to facilitate their payment transactions by providing digital channels which will feature additional products customers can use to transact, receive services and support.

• eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality is advertising for the supply and delivery of network equipment. The metro explains its enterprise network infrastructure is expanding rapidly, driven by the increasing adoption of bandwidth-intensive applications such as voice and voice services. Its networks and telecommunications department is responsible for supporting the enterprise network which currently comprises of over 25 departments across more than 500 sites, it explains. To maintain consistent service delivery and effectively respond to both planned initiatives and unforeseen needs, it is essential that the department has the capability to procure network equipment as and when required.

• The KwaZulu-Natal metro is also inviting bids for technical support and maintenance services of the municipality’s intelligent transport system (ITS). Transport systems are inherently complex and continuous software development is required to maintain, update and enhance these systems, the metro explains. Transport systems integration requires an understanding of the complex algorithms that enable the ITS to communicate with the outside world and other control systems, ultimately providing a one-stop shop for control, data collection, management and dissemination of information. The ITS system collectively integrates all transportation elements, such as automatic collection and dissemination of traffic information and area traffic control, with other intelligent transport services, such as the freeway management system. A large amount of traffic control data required by management to present to the public can be extrapolated from these systems.