South african government procurement

South African IT procurement, amongst many other factors and regulations, is governed by these principles

• Functionality
• Cost containment
• Open Source (FOSS)

An OPEN tender or quotation process must be followed in these circumstances

• new requirements
• the end of an ELA or SLA

These are the basic steps that ANY government entity is supposed to follow

• conduct a process to determine functional and non-functional requirements and write these up as formal ToR (Terms of Reference)

 * you may not mention a product or brand OR structure the ToR so they fit a brand or vendor
 * a 'licence' is not a functional requirement and therefore has no place in a ToR

• put these out to OPEN tender or quotation (depending on size) via the CSD (Central Supplier Database) so they appear on the | eTender portal
• if a FOSS-based bid is submitted and is considered responsive, it has to be adjudicated fairly along with any other bid. If it comes out with the best score (technical+price+BEE) then naturally it must be selected.

• there is NO justification for hanging on to a proprietary system

 *  

• the early stages of a FOSS contract should include a managed migration process, of systems and users.

References

FOSS policy in South Africa

• http://gissa.org.za/special-interest-groups/open-source
• http://gissa.org.za/special-interest-groups/open-source/foss-documents
• http://www.dpsa.gov.za/dpsa2g/egov_documents.asp

Some International FOSS policy and case studies

• [Case_Studies#Open_Source_Policies]