Doing business with govt to be made easier

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Pretoria - Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene will next week launch the Central Supplier Database (CSD) which will simplify the process of doing business with government.

The Minister announced the development and future use of the CSD in the budget speech earlier this year.

“The Central Supplier Database (CSD) will be the source of all supplier information for all organs of state. The CSD will reduce the exchange of compliance documents in paper form, eliminate multiple registrations with different organs of state, and ultimately reduce the cost for both business and government by enabling electronic registration and verification processes,” said National Treasury in a statement on Wednesday.

The CSD will interface with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) to verify tax clearance certificates and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) for business registration and business ownership information.

It will also verify supplier information with the register for tender defaulters and database of restricted suppliers.

From 1 September 2015, prospective suppliers should self-register on the CSD website www.csd.gov.za.

Apart from registering and capturing supplier information on the CSD, suppliers currently on any database of organs of state need to maintain their records through the existing supplier systems for the period 1 September 2015 to 31 March 2016.

The period from 1 September 2015 to 31 March 2016, will be referred to as the Interim Period. During the interim period, suppliers that register on the CSD must provide their CSD supplier number and unique security code that will communicated to them, as well as any other relevant documentation (not yet electronically verified by the CSD) to the organs of state that they want to do business with.

The launch will take place in East London, Eastern Cape, at the Industrial Development Zone (IDZ – Business Centre), on Tuesday. - SAnews.gov.za