National Treasury will establish and administer the Central Supplier Database (CSD) on behalf of all departments, constitutional institutions and public entities. The CSD serves as one single source of supplier information to all spheres of government.
National Treasury has not yet confirmed an exact date, but certain reports have speculated that all suppliers to government must be registered and verified on the CSD from 1st April 2016.
The CSD will be the single source of key supplier information for the whole of government. The CSD is part of the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) and e-Procurement systems – providing consolidated, accurate, up-to-date, complete and vetted supplier information.
CSD will enable future business intelligence reporting (spend analysis, SMME targeting for empowerment and growth, etc.) across the spheres of government through the use of a single supplier number and standard commodity codes.
What is needed for government to comply?
Gearing up your organisation for the CSD can be a daunting task. Miresh Ranchod, Director of Electronic Supply Chain and Procurement Enterprise (Escape), offers some quick tips and useful information to get your suppliers ready to comply.
1. Get information about the CSD
It is highly recommended that you obtain as much information about the CSD from the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer of National Treasury before committing to CSD.
2. Get your suppliers on the CSD
On the go-live date you will only be able to procure from the suppliers that are registered and verified on the CSD. As such, it is critical to ensure that current suppliers are registered on the CSD. If you have an electronic supplier database, you need to migrate them to the CSD. If not then Escape can load your suppliers for automatic migration to the CSD.
3. Align your SCM for the CSD
The current Supply Chain Management processes, procedures and systems need to be aligned with the CSD to ensure that only registered and verified CSD suppliers are used. This includes appropriate controls, in terms of CSD verification, at the relevant stages of the processes. This is required because verification on the CSD is in real time and a supplier verified now might not be verified later.
4. Procure off of the CSD
Depending on the type of procurement procedures used, the CSD affects how these are implemented. National Treasury’s CSD is not a procurement tool. For example, in the case of a request for quotations, suppliers must be selected from the CSD on a rotational basis. These implications need to be considered to comply with the CSD.
For more information on National Treasury CSD contact csd@treasury.gov.za or phone 012 406 9222.
For more information on migrating to the CSD contact Escape’s Miresh Ranchod on miresh@phi-series.co.za.
