The provincial government recently stopped the outsourced contract, terminating the agreement two years early, after deciding to move the functions in-house under the auspices of the Department of Finance. The decision was the result of a “reprioritisation” process within government.
However, government's move resulted in the contract with Dialogue subsidiary Sibize Calling International, being canned. As a result, Sibize itself is likely to close down, because Gauteng was its largest customer.
Sibize was awarded the contract in 2007 and the deal was worth about R1 billion. Last month, the call centre company approached the Johannesburg High Court to have the settlement amount ratified, but the matter was withdrawn.
Gauteng finance spokesman Emmanuel Mdawu says R105 million is owed to the Dialogue subsidiary. The outstanding amount is, he says, the “balance of the early termination agreement” and Gauteng will pay this over to Sibize next May.
Dialogue CEO Alan Farthing says the late payment is not a problem for Sibize in terms of it paying creditors. He says the amount is outstanding, but the company has entered into a revised payment schedule.
Sibize provided Gauteng with several services through the call centre, including procurement and finance shared services, licence booking for the Department of Transport, consumer complaints, and a book-a-taxi service.
Farthing says Sibize had over 500 seats at the call centre and two-thirds of its services were provided to the Department of Transport for licence bookings.
The department estimates that it has saved about R300 million by cancelling the deal with Sibize. In the middle of October, Finance MEC Mandla Nkomfe explained the contract was cancelled by mutual consent after a review of the centre found “provincial objectives would be realised better with the contact centre being managed by the department”.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Nicola Mawson
Quelle/Source: ITWeb,
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