(1) The department has not awarded any open tender related to Covid-19 pandemic, however, awarded 3 Purchase Orders to date for Covid-19 related personal protective equipment (PPE) and 1 Purchase Order for antivirus software for the Secure Video Conferencing Solution through quotation processes to the following companies (i) Bidvest Steiner, (ii) Inhlanhla Ga Tshwarelo, (iii) Lechoba Medical Supplies and Ubuntu Technologies.
(2) Deviation process was followed to provide Secure Video Conferencing Solution for Government on an urgent basis to allow work to continue while minimising the health risks posed by infectious Covid-19 pandemic.
(3) The reason for choosing the said Information Technology supplier is that the department already had contracts with the two companies (i) Nanoteq and (ii) TrueConf that provided infrastructure to the department on secure communications and video conferencing solutions respectively. Consequently, the department approached the two companies to increase the number of licences they were already providing to the department with a view to minimize the risk of the Covid -19 pandemic.
(4) Not at this stage