THURSDAY, 11.00AM
TELECOMS parastatal has scrapped a controversial R100-million tender for the creation of a national valu-added network after information technology companies argued that the terms of the tender favoured a particular vendor.
Telkom denied the allegations and the Competition Board investigated the claims. but made little progress because no suppliers would risk criticising Telkom, a major buyer of technology. Several major firms refused to bid for the tender because they felt it favoured Newbridge Networks.
Telkom suspended the tender in June, saying its strategic equity partners were reassessing the Enterprise Network Service project. Now the tender has bee dropped altohether beacuse, according to Telkom market startegy and business development manager Blackie Lahoud, “our partners are going to redesign the whole network”. This tends to go against earlier Telkom statements claiming the equity partners had co-operated fully in drawing up the tender.
Letters confirming that the tender has been dropped have been sent to shortlisted companies.