Tender Advice Centres (TACs) provide support to small businesses such as assisting with accessing tender opportunities and completing tender documents. The tender- related services they supply include:

• Explaining invitations to tender
• Assisting in completing tender documents (including advice on how to enter contracts and how to work out pricing)
• Counselling (pre- and post-tender)
• Providing information on procurement and tendering policies
• Holding tender awareness workshops, seminars and forums

Other business help they provide includes:

• Information on business opportunities
• Advice on regulations and legal requirements (for example, vat registration)
• Access to databases of small businesses and suppliers
• Referrals to specialist training programmes
• Project management assistance
• Training needs assessment
• Co-ordination of training programmes
• Evaluation of the capacity of small businesses to deliver on contracts
• Subsidised skills-development programmes.

Example:

The Department of Public Works wants to build a community hall in Bonteheuwel, in the Western Cape. The Department advertises in newspapers and in the government gazette. In the advertisement the Department asks builders to tender for the job. This means that a builder must write down how he or she will go about building the community centre and how much it will cost.