Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts has suggested that a cap must be placed on exemptions from tendering procedures amid indications that departments and state-owned entities are abusing deviations and expansions. Deviations and expansions are invoked when departments and entities ask to be exempted from following due tendering process, citing emergencies or a single capable provider. However, these are often open to abuse and corruption. In the third and fourth quarters of 2017-18, a Treasury report tabled in Parliament showed that the Department of Defence (R734m), the State Information Technology Agency, (R288m), Eskom (R11.3bn), the South African Revenue Service (R917m) and the South African Post Office (R313m) requested the most deviations and expansions for contracts. The committee has been grilling the various departments and entities that were highlighted in the Treasury report. "We are concerned that this measure [deviation and expansions] meant to be used fo...
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