THE ICT CHARTER

Objectives
The main objectives of this Charter as it pertains to this indicator are
to:-
• increase the amount of money spent on procuring from BEE
enterprises; focus should be on procuring from Black-owned
and Black-controlled enterprises;
• provide incentives for enterprises to procure from (respective
sectoral) Charter compliant enterprises thus ensuring the ripple
effect of affirmative procurement is realised throughout the
economy;
• ensure that ICT and other skills that would otherwise be lost
through, say retrenchments, are still made available to the
sector and the economy; and
• establish a co-ordinated framework for the implementation of
black supplier development programs.
Challenges
The following are some of the major challenges facing the sector:-
• Peripheral and non-core procurement – Black suppliers are
often appointed to supply only peripheral products and
services.
• Abuse of Non-Discretionary Spend Principle - the principle
that the percentage of affirmative procurement should be
calculated from a total excluding goods and services not
ordinarily available from black or local suppliers, is inherently
open to abuse and requires serious attention and creativity.
• Lack of suitable black suppliers – due to the lack of supplier
development, there is a shortage of suitable black suppliers.
This has also contributed largely to the practice of “fronting”.
• Quality of Product and Delivery – some large companies
have expressed legitimate concerns over the quality of goods
and services procured from some inexperienced and emerging
black SMME’s.
• Preferential Payment Cycles – black companies, particularly
black SMME’s, are generally not offered preferential payment
cycles resulting in adverse cash flow positions.
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