Question NW1718 to the Minister of Home Affairs

Reply:

An “evergreen contract” is defined as a contract that automatically renews itself on or after the expiry date. This means that the parties involved in the contract should agree that it rolls over automatically until one party gives a notice of termination. GPW’s business entails engagement with suppliers and service providers to acquire services and products that serve to facilitate the printing of critical print and media material for government departments and its entities. This relationship is formalised through entering into Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) with respective customers. Some customers are either a single source and or sole supplier/provider depending on the type of service rendered to GPW by these customers.

GPW observed that some companies on its database had been providing services for prolonged periods and therefore initiated a project to review the content of its contracts. Its objective is to identify and classify all contracts into different types and produce a report for implementation. The outcome of this project would enable GPW to determine the evergreen contracts and address them accordingly, including consideration to go out and test the market where necessary. GPW has been in consultation with National Treasury for advice on this project. In view of this, it would at this stage be legally inappropriate to provide full details of the current evergreen contracts for the Government Printing whilst the project is still underway. The project should be concluded by the end of this financial year.

GPW intends to address all the undesirable evergreen contracts found within the organisation to ensure compliance with the supply chain management principles of equity, ethical and fair dealing, open and effective competition, accountability and reporting, value for money, and transparent procurement.

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