Tender Summary: Secretarial Services

Objectives

The primary objective is to appoint a competent service provider to deliver comprehensive secretarial and administrative support to merSETA. The appointment aims to ensure seamless operational functioning, maintain high standards of documentation and correspondence management, and comply with South African public sector procurement legislation, including the Public Finance Management Act and the Skills Development Act.

Scope

The scope encompasses the provision of full secretarial services as required by merSETA. While the provided documentation does not list granular daily tasks, the scope inherently covers standard administrative functions including correspondence handling, document preparation and filing, scheduling, record management, meeting coordination, and general office administration. The service provider will operate under merSETA’s supply chain management framework and may be contracted for the entire requirement or awarded in parts.

Technical Requirements

• Mandatory administrative compliance: Valid Central Supplier Database (CSD) registration, tax clearance status, fully completed Standard Bidding Document (SBD) forms (SBD 4, 6.1, 7.1), and a valid Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) certificate.
• Firm pricing structure: All costs must be inclusive of applicable taxes, transport, accommodation, and ancillary expenses. Quotations must remain valid for 60 calendar days from the closing date.
• Three-stage evaluation process: Stage 1 verifies administrative and mandatory compliance; Stage 2 assesses technical functionality and specification adherence; Stage 3 scores price and preferential goals.
• Performance and verification clauses: merSETA reserves the right to conduct site inspections, perform FICA and background checks on the entity and its leadership, verify references, and evaluate past performance over the preceding five years.
• Payment conditions: Invoicing requires substantiated claims accompanied by delivery notes. Payment is processed within 30 days of receipt. No services may commence prior to formal written appointment or purchase order issuance.

Skills Requirements

The tender does not specify explicit vocational or technical skill thresholds. Bidders are expected to demonstrate proven capacity to deliver professional secretarial services, including advanced administrative management, accurate documentation handling, effective communication, and organizational support. Experience in government, parastatal, or regulated corporate environments is implicitly valued through the functionality scoring and reference verification processes.

Unusual or Complicated Terms

• 80/20 Preference Point System: Scoring allocates 80 points to price competitiveness and 20 points to specific socio-economic goals (e.g., black ownership, black women/youth ownership, white women ownership, and disability ownership). Bidders must submit verifiable documentary proof to claim these points; failure to do so results in zero allocation for the respective goal.
• Strict Liability & Efficiency Clauses: The client explicitly states it will not compensate for unproductive, duplicated, or inefficient time resulting from staff turnover, rework, or mismanagement. Any pricing calculation errors are solely the bidder’s risk.
• Evaluation Discretion: merSETA retains full authority to reject the lowest financial offer, conduct post-evaluation negotiations on pricing and terms, award the contract in whole or in part, and request additional documentation at any stage.
• Regulatory Framework Integration: The contract is governed by multiple overlapping statutes and policies, including the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act, General Conditions of Contract, and merSETA’s internal SCM procedures, requiring strict procedural adherence throughout the lifecycle.