Black companies and their associates continue to benefit from government procurement policies, with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) awarding two black economic empowerment (BEE) tenders with a total value of R400 million for the upgrading of its IT infrastructure and the implementation of the SAP solution.

The first tender, for the supply of desktop PCs and software, has been awarded to AMC, a BEE consortium made up of arivia.kom, Choice Technologies and Mthombo IT Services, and is worth R300 million over three years.

The consortium won out for a number of reasons, according to SARS. Firstly, it provides a single point of contact for the provision and maintenance of PCs. The deal involves the supply of 12 500 PCs and 289 servers countrywide, including software and maintenance, and SARS information officer Ken Jarvis says it will reduce the costs of desktop maintenance by 15 percent.