R1bn SARS tender awarded

By Dave Glazier for Accenture
Johannesburg, 11 Dec 2006

Consulting and IT services giant Accenture has won the long-awaited South African Revenue Service (SARS) tender for the modernisation of the tax and customs business.

"After a thorough evaluation process over many months, Accenture has been identified as the preferred bidder. A key differentiator was Accenture's knowledge and expertise within the tax and customs environment," says SARS communications GM Logan Wort.

The objective of the tender, which was issued in December 2005, was "to identify a partner capable of implementing a programme of this size and complexity," he adds in a statement this morning.

While the exact value of the contract is unclear, SARS recently indicated it would be worth about R1 billion - up slightly from the initial estimates of R750 million.

Great interest

In January, ITWeb reported that 78 companies had submitted bids for the modernisation tender, with a source close to the process then saying the tender had attracted considerable international interest.

Then in charge of the project - which is expected to take four years to implement - ex-CIO Ken Jarvis explained that multiple legacy systems would be replaced by a single processing engine, consolidating revenue and customs services.

This project, along with a customs scanner tender and a voice and data network replacement tender, forms a crucial element of its "roadmap to 2010" strategy. All three tenders have been beset by delays - with the other two being cancelled and re-issued in different guises. This is the first of the three to be awarded.

Why Accenture won

The respondents to the modernisation tender, notes Wort, were measured against capabilities such as:

* Extensive tax and customs knowledge relevant to SARS and other agencies around the world, including business models, tax and customs products, and technology systems.
* A valid methodology and approach to the modernisation programme.
* An appropriate technology solution.
* A successful track record of similar large-scale implementations.

"The tender caters for the modernisation project to unfold in four distinct phases stretching over a number of years and subject to affordability," he says.

The engagement mechanism that has been designed allows SARS and the successful bidder to review the work completed at the end of each phase, reconfirm costs and delivery timelines, and decide on whether to proceed to the next phase. Both parties will have the option to exit the programme at the end of each phase of the project.