Hey Freelance Friends!

The word “tenderpreneur” has done for government contracts what “load of rubbish” did for the municipal bin: made an entire process sound like something a respectable person would rather not be seen near.

The stereotype writes itself, with a minister’s cousin, a company registered last Tuesday, a contract for something that could not possibly cost that much, and a delivery date that is a matter of faith.

But the process has a legitimate version, it is free to enter, and the details are published for anyone who cares to read them, which makes it the one corner of the economy where honest freelancers and shameless opportunists are using the same forms.

So this edition is a field guide to the real process, with a light touch of satire aimed squarely at the stereotype and the system, and no real person or company in the firing line.

Everything starts with the Central Supplier Database, or CSD, which is National Treasury’s register of suppliers to government. Registration is mandatory for suppliers to organs of state, and the database has been the single supplier register since 1 April 2016. The CSD’s own welcome page invites suppliers to self-register and lists well over a million verified suppliers, which, statistically speaking, means the database has more suppliers than some small countries have citizens.

You register yourself, for free, on the government’s own site. Private agents advertise CSD registration services at a fee, one listing R540, which is a respectable price for something that costs nothing, in the way that selling someone a glass of tap water is a respectable price for water. Paying an agent is your right, but you should do it knowing the free route exists.

You need a South African ID or your company’s CIPC documents, a bank account in the name you are registering under, and an up-to-date SARS tax compliance status. Evaluators verify your tax compliance online, so a lapsed tax status can sink a bid before anyone reads it. That is why the earlier editions in this run matter: whether you are a sole proprietor or a company, and whether your bank account matches your name, decide how smoothly registration goes. Give yourself time, because verification takes days or weeks, and nobody should find out their tax status is out of date the week a tender closes.

The government’s tender publication site is the eTenders portal, and browsing it is free, with filters for currently advertised, awarded, cancelled and closed tenders. You can search by category, province, the organ of state issuing the tender and even supplier name. Tenders come in several types, including open bids, limited bids, requests for information and requests for quotation. The last of these, requests for quotation, are typically the smaller jobs and the ones a solo operator has the best chance with, though whether freelance-style services appear in your category is something to check by searching, not something we can promise.

Two cautions are worth knowing. The eTenders portal lists national and provincial departments, while municipal tenders sit on municipal sites and state-owned companies publish on their own portals, so one portal is not the whole picture. And a tender notice is a legal document with deadlines and mandatory documents, so a missing form can disqualify a bid before anyone looks at the price.

Here is the section the stereotype would rather skip. National Treasury publishes procurement data on a transparency portal covering procurement plans, tenders, awards and contracts, and the data comes from what government entities share through eTenders. In plain terms, you can look up an award and see who won, which department awarded it and for how much. The portal itself notes that its data is not a complete record of all procurement in the country, so it is a very good place to start and a poor place to stop, but it makes the claim “nobody ever finds out” noticeably harder to sustain.

For a freelancer, reading awards in your category is also the best market research available: you learn what departments buy, what it costs and who you are competing with. Do this before you bid on anything.

Being on the CSD makes you eligible to bid. It does not put you on anyone’s shortlist. Bids are scored on price and on preference points, including B-BBEE status, so check how a particular tender is scored before you spend a week on it. Incomplete submissions get disqualified, so a checklist is your friend. Most first-time bidders lose a few before they win one, and the bids that fail are still teaching you how the process reads.

None of this is a guarantee, and we are not claiming that an honest freelancer can walk in and win. We are saying the front door is open, unlocked and free, and that the only thing between you and it is a form with your SARS status on it.

Register on the CSD yourself, for free, at its official site, and write down your supplier number. Then open the eTenders portal, filter to awarded tenders in your category, and read five of them: who won, what it was worth, and what the department asked for. If any of the five make you laugh, that is allowed, and if any make you angry, that is allowed too.

— The Profreelance Crew

P.S. If you have registered on the CSD or bid on a tender, reply and tell us how it went, and where the process surprised you.