Supply and configuration of azure-based private cloud infrastructure for merseta

Provision of Azure Based Private Cloud for a period of 24 months. Key technical requirements: Linux-based virtual machines hosted in the South Africa North region. Full technical details are provided in Annexure A.

Closing date: 18 June 2026. Closing time: 16:00. Price validity period: 60 days from closing date.

SCM Enquiries: Karabo Phalo, Email: [email protected]. Technical Enquiries: Stanley Masete, Email: [email protected]. Submission Email: [email protected]. Fraud Hotline: 0800 333 057 (for reporting unethical conduct such as scams, fraud, bribery, or blackmail).

Submit quotations via email to [email protected] with the RFQ number (RFQ-ICT-26-27-059) as the email subject. Quotations must be clearly marked with the RFQ number and description of the required goods/services. Late submissions will not be considered. Required returnable documents: completed RFQ forms, Central Supplier Database (CSD) registration number, pricing schedule, SBD 4 (Bidder’s Disclosure), SBD 6.1 (Preference Points Claim Form), SBD 7.1 (Contract Form), and any mandatory certifications. Ensure all tax matters are in order as reflected on CSD. Use the official merSETA quotation form; supplementary pricing breakdowns may be added on company letterhead. The Price Declaration must be completed, and its total will override any discrepancies in the RFQ pricing. Failure to submit required documents may result in disqualification.

Bid documents must be emailed to [email protected] on or before the closing date and time (18 June 2026, 16:00). Only submissions received by the deadline will be considered. Quotations must be clearly marked with the RFQ number and description.

Evaluation follows a three-stage process: Stage 1: Compliance with administrative and mandatory requirements (completed RFQ forms, CSD registration, SBD 4, SBD 6.1, SBD 7.1, and any other mandatory documents). Stage 2: Compliance to technical specifications or functionality scoring (minimum threshold required to progress). Stage 3: Price (80 points) and preference goals (20 points). The 80/20 preference point system applies. Preference goals and points: Black People Ownership (51%-100%: 6 points), Black Women Ownership (30%-100%: 4 points), Black Youth Ownership (30%-100%: 4 points), White Women Ownership (30%-100%: 2 points), People with Disability Ownership (20% or more: 4 points). Submit proof (e.g., B-BBEE certificate, CIPC certificate, or affidavit) with SBD 6.1 to claim points. Failure to submit proof forfeits those points. merSETA may require additional verification. merSETA reserves the right to negotiate terms with qualifying bidders, reject any offer (including the lowest-priced bid), or award in whole or in part. Bidders must certify independence of bid (no collusion with competitors). Suspicious bids may be reported to the Competition Commission or NPA, potentially leading to disqualification, cost recovery, contract cancellation, or criminal prosecution.

Provision of Azure Based Private Cloud for a period of 24 months. Key technical requirements: Virtual Machine Operating System must be Linux. Hosting Region: South Africa North. Bidders must fully address all technical/functional requirements outlined in the specifications (detailed in Annexure A). Non-compliance with specifications must be declared, with deviations clearly indicated.

Evaluation methodology consists of three stages: Stage 1: Compliance with administrative and mandatory requirements (e.g., completed RFQ forms, CSD registration, SBD 4, SBD 6.1, SBD 7.1). Stage 2: Technical compliance to specifications or functionality scoring (minimum threshold required to progress). Stage 3: Price (80 points) and preference goals (20 points). Bidders must meet all mandatory requirements to advance to the next stage.

merSETA reserves the right to: amend bid conditions or specifications before the closing date (bidders must monitor the website for updates), reject any bid (including the lowest-priced), award the contract in whole or in part, conduct site inspections at the bidder’s premises or client sites, and request additional verification documents. Past experience with the bidder may be considered in the evaluation process.

Pricing Schedule must include: item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, total prices, and VAT (15%). Declare compliance with specifications. If non-compliant, clearly indicate deviations. The Pricing Schedule must be signed and dated by a duly authorised representative. Use the official merSETA quotation form; supplementary pricing breakdowns may be added on company letterhead.

Prices must be firm and inclusive of VAT (15%). Prices must include all related expenses (e.g., transport, accommodation). Price validity period: 60 days from the closing date. Payment terms: Valid invoices will be paid in full within 30 days from the statement date for work done to merSETA’s satisfaction. Non-compliance with pricing rules (e.g., non-firm prices) will disqualify the bid. Use the official merSETA quotation form; supplementary pricing breakdowns may be added on company letterhead. The Price Declaration must be completed, and its total will override any discrepancies in the RFQ pricing. Pricing Schedule must include: item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, total prices, and VAT. Declare compliance with specifications; if non-compliant, indicate deviations.

Bidders must be registered on the National Treasury’s Central Supplier Database (CSD) with a valid CSD number. Tax compliance must be in order as per Treasury Regulations. Submit: SBD 4 (Bidder’s Disclosure), SBD 6.1 (Preference Points Claim Form with supporting documents, e.g., B-BBEE certificate, CIPC certificate, or affidavit), and SBD 7.1 (Contract Form). Bidders must declare any conflicts of interest, relationships with merSETA employees, or interests in related enterprises. Failure to complete mandatory forms (e.g., SBD 4) may result in disqualification. Bidders listed in the Register for Tender Defaulters or List of Restricted Suppliers will be automatically disqualified. No restrictive practices or collusive bidding permitted. Bidder must certify independence of bid and confirm no consultations, communications, or agreements with competitors or merSETA officials regarding the bid.

Preference goals and points for this RFQ: Black People Ownership (51%-100%: 6 points), Black Women Ownership (30%-100%: 4 points), Black Youth Ownership (30%-100%: 4 points), White Women Ownership (30%-100%: 2 points), People with Disability Ownership (20% or more: 4 points). Total: 20 points. Submit proof (e.g., valid B-BBEE certificate, CIPC B-BBEE certificate, CIPC certificate, ID, or CSD registration) with SBD 6.1 to claim points. Failure to submit proof forfeits those points.

Contract terms: Payment will be made within 30 days of receipt of a valid invoice accompanied by a delivery note. The successful bidder must sign SBD 7.1 (Contract Form) in duplicate. The contract is subject to the Public Finance Management Act, merSETA Supply Chain Management Policy, General Conditions of Contract, and any applicable Special Conditions of Contract. The contract will be governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa. merSETA reserves the right to recover additional costs if the bidder withdraws or fails to fulfil the contract. The bidder must confirm full responsibility for the execution and fulfilment of all obligations under the contract.

Bidder must certify independence of bid (no collusion with competitors). Suspicious bids may be reported to the Competition Commission or National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Collusion or fraud may result in disqualification, recovery of costs, contract cancellation, or criminal prosecution. Bidders must declare any conflicts of interest or relationships with merSETA employees.

Failure to submit proof for preference goals forfeits those points. merSETA may require additional verification. merSETA reserves the right to negotiate terms with qualifying bidders and may reject any offer, including the lowest-priced bid.

This document is the SBD4 (Declaration of Interest) form only. The full tender specification for Azure Based Private Cloud provision is not included. Bidders must declare: state employment of directors/trustees/shareholders; relationships with the procuring institution; interests in other related enterprises. The bid must be submitted independently without collusion.

• Complete and submit the SBD4 (Declaration of Interest) form.
• Declare: (1) whether any director, trustee, shareholder, or person with controlling interest is employed by the state; (2) any relationship with employees of the procuring institution; (3) any interest in other related enterprises.
• The bid must be prepared independently without collusion, consultation, or arrangement with competitors.
• False declarations may lead to disqualification, reporting to the Competition Commission or National Prosecuting Authority, and restriction from public sector business for up to ten years.

• Open to any natural or juristic person.
• Automatic disqualification if listed on the Register for Tender Defaulters or List of Restricted Suppliers.
• No state employment of directors, trustees, shareholders, or controlling parties unless fully disclosed.
• No undisclosed relationships with employees of merSETA or the procuring institution.
• No prior involvement in drafting the tender specifications or terms of reference.

The extracted document contains only the SBD4 Declaration of Interest form. No technical specifications, scope of work, or service requirements for the Azure Private Cloud provision are present.

• Complete the SBD4 Declaration of Interest form.
• Automatic disqualification if listed on the Register for Tender Defaulters or List of Restricted Suppliers.
• False declarations may result in bid rejection and action under PFMA SCM Instruction 03 of 2021/22.
• Suspected collusive practices may be reported to the Competition Commission under section 59 of the Competition Act No 89 of 1998.

• Scope: Provision of an Azure-based private cloud for merSETA for 24 months.
• Key components: Linux-based VMs (GPU and Processing), storage, networking, security, and additional Azure services as detailed in the technical specifications.

• Closing date for submissions: 4 June 2026.

• Eligibility criteria will be applied to determine qualified bidders.

• Provision of an Azure-based private cloud for a 24-month period in Azure South Africa North region.

Virtual Machines:

• GPU VM: Minimum SKU Standard_NC4as_T4_v3 (4 vCPU, 28 GiB RAM, 1 x NVIDIA T4 GPU, 16 GB GPU memory) for running Ollama and private AI models.
• Processing VM: Minimum SKU Standard_D8as_v5 (8 vCPU, 32 GiB RAM) for Qdrant, Docling, OCR, n8n, API/orchestration, and document processing.
• Both VMs must be Linux-based.

Storage:

• GPU VM OS Disk: 256 GiB Premium SSD (Linux OS, Ollama runtime, model cache, container runtime).
• Processing VM OS Disk: 128 GiB Premium SSD (Linux OS, Docker, processing services, system packages).
• Processing/Qdrant Data Disk: 1 TiB Premium SSD (Qdrant vector data, embeddings, metadata, temporary processing workspace).
• Temporary Object Storage: 500 GiB (temporary processing files, failed-job retention, exported logs, transient document artefacts).

Network and Security:

• Azure Bastion Basic: 1 instance for secure admin access to Linux VMs without public SSH exposure.
• Virtual Network: 1 VNet with minimum 4 subnets (AI, Processing, Management, Private Endpoints).
• Network Security Groups: 3–4 NSGs to restrict traffic between merSETA systems, AI server, processing server, and admin subnet.
• Private connectivity: System-to-system access from approved merSETA subscriptions only (Private Endpoint/Private Link).
• Public IP: 1 Standard Public IP for Azure Bastion management access only.

Additional Services:

• Key Vault Standard: 1 vault for storing API keys, secrets, certificates, and service credentials.
• Log Analytics Workspace: 50 GB/month ingestion with 90-day retention (VM logs, API logs, admin access logs, AI processing logs, security events).
• Azure Monitor: Basic alert rules for VM health, disk, GPU/CPU/memory, failed jobs, and queue monitoring.
• Recovery Services Vault: 1 vault for VM and configuration recovery.
• Azure Backup: Daily backups for 2 VMs + approximately 1.5 TiB protected data (VM configuration, processing data, critical service state).
• Container Runtime: Docker on Linux VMs (included in VMs) for Ollama, Qdrant, Docling, n8n, and supporting services.
• Bandwidth/Data Transfer: Low-volume private system-to-system traffic (internal traffic, API calls, limited outbound updates).
• Azure DNS/Private DNS Zones: 1–3 private DNS zones for internal name resolution (AI API, Qdrant, storage, private endpoints).

Notes:

• The AI engine is not the authoritative document repository; original documents remain in source merSETA systems unless explicitly agreed otherwise.
• Public WAF/Application Gateway is excluded from this minimum private BOM.

• Pricing must be based on the Azure Bill of Materials provided.
• Required components and their specifications:

• Linux GPU Virtual Machine (Standard_NC4as_T4_v3): 1 VM for Ollama and private AI models.
• Linux Processing Virtual Machine (Standard_D8as_v5): 1 VM for Qdrant, Docling, OCR, n8n, API/orchestration, and document processing.
• GPU VM OS Disk: 256 GiB Premium SSD.
• Processing VM OS Disk: 128 GiB Premium SSD.
• Processing/Qdrant Data Disk: 1 TiB Premium SSD.
• Temporary Object Storage: 500 GiB.
• Azure Bastion Basic: 1 instance.
• Virtual Network: 1 VNet with minimum 4 subnets.
• Network Security Groups: 3–4.
• Public IP for Bastion: 1.
• Key Vault Standard: 1 vault.
• Log Analytics Workspace: 50 GB/month.
• Azure Monitor: Basic alerts.
• Recovery Services Vault: 1 vault.
• Azure Backup: For 2 VMs + ~1.5 TiB protected data.
• Container Runtime: Docker on Linux VMs.
• Bandwidth/Data Transfer: Low-volume private system-to-system traffic.
• Azure DNS/Private DNS Zones: 1–3 zones.

• Assumptions: Pay-as-you-go unless otherwise specified. Suppliers must provide current Azure calculator output and disclose all pricing assumptions.

• Suppliers must provide current Azure calculator output for pricing.
• Pricing must explicitly disclose assumptions for reserved instances, savings plans, or pay-as-you-go models.
• Costs in the Bill of Materials are indicative planning estimates only.
• Suppliers must align pricing with the specified Azure services, SKUs, and capacities listed in the technical specifications.