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Millions of rands has been budgeted by the Western Cape Provincial Government for what it terms Microsoft Migration, with no proper tender process, no public participation, no observance of the Public Finance Management Act or its regulations, and no discernable evaluation of competitor products.

This identification of Microsoft products above any other competing product in the budgetary process is patently irregular and unlawful. The regular process to be followed, if the Western Cape wanted to upgrade its software, would have been for an allowance to be made for a software upgrade in the budget - followed by a proper competitive tender process to evaluate products and identify the most suitable for the job.

The ANC will be raising this issue with national treasury, the auditor-general and the public protector. We will immediately be calling on Scopa to hold public hearings to determine the truth behind Microsoft's budgetary "appointment".

In the Western Cape Budget Book, on page eight, is an item stating: "Migrating the provincial government IT operating system to a technologically more advanced system." Elsewhere it is referred to as: Microsoft Migration. By what measure was Microsoft identified as the preferred provider of "technologically more advanced systems"?

Did the Premier's office consider any other competing products, including open source software? After all, one of the best know sons of our Province, Mark Shuttleworth has led the way helping to create Ubuntu Linux. Open source software encourages cooperation for common good. Most of the products of open source are free for use and work very well.

The ANC is not saying any one product is better than another. Perhaps Microsoft is the best software supplier for the purpose, but who determined that? What the ANC is saying is that lawful processes are required in terms of government financial management systems to make this type of evaluation.

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