Top ICT tenders: TIA targets funding applications turnaround

The Technology Innovation Agency aims to review, clean up, capture, expedite and organise funding applications data. (Image source: iStock)

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National Treasury’s eTenders Portal delivers another slow week for the ICT industry, as even municipalities and districts start to slow down on publishing requests.

It is against this backdrop that the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) takes top spot with a tender for the appointment of a service provider to review, clean up, capture, expedite and organise funding applications data, and to progress these applications through its internal processes.

While the contents of the tender documentation do no refer to this request as a turnaround initiative, the name of the PDF speaks volumes: “Turnaround tender ToRs”.

Mandated to promote the development and exploitation of discoveries, inventions, innovations and improvements in the public interest, the TIA has been subjected to complaints of slow turnaround times, according to comments from CEO Dr Titus Mathe.

This concern is re-iterated in the agency’s Annual Performance Plan for 2026/27, in which chairman Loyiso Tyira acknowledged the key risks of “organisational readiness to implement strategic reforms at scale, funding constraints relative to demand for innovation support, internal capacity limitations, and the risk of eroding stakeholder confidence should responsiveness and turnaround times not improve”.

The newly advertised six‑month contract requires the successful bidder to deploy a team of practitioners to work alongside TIA employees, providing “hands‑on operational capacity and workflow support” rather than replacing existing expertise.

Deliverables include cleaned and verified application records; complete and accurately captured information on TIA‑approved systems; properly organised electronic files with audit trails; and weekly and monthly progress reports to track throughput, ageing, bottlenecks and risks.

Service providers must also make available technical experts on an ad hoc basis to support application processing in domains ranging from health and biotechnology, agriculture and energy, to ICT, mining, advanced manufacturing and space technologies.

The TIA will hold a compulsory briefing over Microsoft Teams on 13 October before submissions close at 11am on 26 October.

Other tenders that make this week’s top 10:

• The City of Cape Town is advertising for the procurement of a digital platform for idea management and public participation over 2028/29, 2029/30 and 2030/31. The platform will be utilised to link up with existing areas of excellence in the city, drive further collaboration with external stakeholders and create an avenue for the sourcing of innovative ideas from citizens in order to create relevant and increasingly innovative services for citizens, it says.

• Eskom’s National Transmission Company of South Africa is inviting bids for the establishment of a support contract for Eskom Telecommunications, for BME equipment install base, spares holding and network management system. The utility explains the BME platform carries Eskom mission-critical services; however, it has reached end of life and Alcatel is no longer supporting the product. Specialised equipment and NMS support is also hard to come by, it notes.

• The Department of Public Service and Administration has reissued its tender for the development and customisation of the departmental information security officer (DISO) training programme for the public service. While no reference is made to its August 2026 request, the new tender no longer requires the delivery portion of the training programme.

• The State Information Technology Agency wishes to appoint a service provider to supply backup software, maintenance and support to the Department of Agriculture. The agency notes that for the new backup to be fully operational by 20 January 2027, the service provider will need to start with training of departmental ICT backup specialists and doing the new installation by 11 January 2027.

• Mpumalanga’s Govan Mbeki Local Municipality is calling for the licensing, support, maintenance and enhancements of an integrated municipal financial management system (ERP) compliant with mSCOA regulations and National Treasury business process requirements.

• Merafong Local Municipality in Gauteng wishes to appoint a panel of service providers for the provision of disaster recovery services.

• Vhembe District Municipality in Limpopo is re-advertising for shared fraud and ethics hotline management. The hotline will be shared with all local municipalities within the district, and enable municipal officials and community members to report any suspicious or alleged fraudulent conducts by council members, staff or private people.

• Staying in Limpopo, the Sekhukhune District Municipality wishes to appoint a service provider for the supply and delivery of computer hardware, devices, peripherals and computer consumables. The district admits it has experienced multiple repetitive audit findings over the years due to weak internal controls, including but not limited to, inadequate user support, access to computer equipment and computer consumables, as well as access to its network systems and applications on the network through firewall access.

• Eskom’s generation division is requesting information on Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM) software and product demonstrations that will assist it in assessing market capabilities, emerging technologies, implementation approaches and solution suitability for future energy trading operations. The RFI follows a request from the utility’s distribution division in July for tools, models, workflows and enablement services required to close identified gaps and integrate with its existing Enerweb ETRM. The latest request does not mention the Enerweb solution.