‘Tender not written for our machines’
ROSSTECH Office Automation, which is a bidder for the five-year lease for high-speed printers for the Northern Cape Department of Education, believes that it is best suited to be awarded the tender.
Some local service providers allegedly set a box containing the tenders alight outside the Department of Education’s office in Kimberley on Friday last week, the same day that the bids closed, as they felt excluded from the bidding process.
On behalf of Rosstech, Charlie Rossouw stated that they are an authorised dealer for Bytes Documents Solution in the Northern Cape, which in turn is the authorised dealer for Xerox South Africa.
“Bytes Documents Solutions (Bytes) is the authorised distributor for Xerox in South Africa. Rosstech Xerox is an authorised dealer of Bytes Documents Solutions in the Northern Cape and as such is partnering with Bytes in the Province for the provision of office automation services and equipment. Rosstech Xerox has a significant footprint in the Northern Cape with branches in Kimberley, Kuruman, Upington, Vryburg and De Aar. As an authorised dealer, we provide services locally on behalf of Bytes in the Northern Cape. Bytes, in partnership with Rosstech Xerox, has provided highly technical and specialised services to the department very successfully for the past seven years, up to November 30, 2017.”
Rossouw added that the department put out a tender for the provision of leasing services for highspeed printers last year.
“Bytes obviously also tendered, like all the other role-players in this very specialised field, but was unfortunately not successful in winning the tender. Our machines were removed in December 2017 to allow the successful bidder to install their equipment.”
Rossouw stated that, like all other companies, they had submitted a bid in response to the tender.
“We do not know the background to the new invitation to tender but believe we are competitive in supplying the required expertise and experience. It seems that the specifications of the tender were compiled from a variety of different suppliers’ specifications and as such we wish to stress that the tender was not written specifically for our machines.”
He pointed out that they were able to successfully deliver according to the needs of the department.
“We are tendering machines that we believe are very close to the specifications of the tender and that we will be able to successfully provide the services required.”
Rossouw questioned the accuracy of the said tender that according to the Northern Cape Progressive Business Forum amounted to R150 million. “This amount in our view would be completely unrealistic and way out of line.
“The department is quite correct in their assertion that this is a highly-specialised and complex tender. It, amongst other things, involves the security of examinations and the education of the pupils of the Province,” Rossouw concluded.