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SITA to invest in ICT infrastructure

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 26 Feb 2015
Telecommunications and postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele recently approved a new SITA structure.
Telecommunications and postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele recently approved a new SITA structure.

The State IT Agency (SITA), which now falls under the auspices of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services, will invest in ICT infrastructure.

This is according to the 2015 Estimates of National Expenditure, and was revealed yesterday in documents released to supplement finance minister Nhlanhla Nene's Budget 2015 speech.

In addition to investing in unspecified ICT infrastructure, SITA will also focus on finalising its turnaround strategy over the next three years. These two aspects account for 81.9% of its R18.4 billion budget over the medium-term.

Under way

SITA has been busy with several actions to resolve issues, some of which are legacy matters, which include an approved strategy and revised procurement processes that create a more transparent and proactive system.

It is also automating processes to ensure a better line of sight for contracts and procurement transactions. It intends to remain a "fully-fledged self-funding, liquid and financially sustainable public entity attaining unqualified audit reports".

The state's IT procurement arm missed about two-thirds of its targets in the last financial year, as it only achieved 11 of its 39 performance measures. "Numerous interventions and corrective actions have been identified and were implemented to ensure favourable performance in the current financial year," it said after a portfolio committee presentation last year.

SITA has 3 183 funded posts, of which 203 are vacant due to the current restructuring, and the agency is aligning the organisational structure with a new one recently approved by telecommunications and postal services minister Siyabonga Cwele.

More revenue, expenses

SITA earns its income from IT services supplied under service-level agreements it has with departments and organs of state. These include services such as data processing, transversal systems, information system security, procurement, and disaster recovery planning.

The budget documents note its income is expected to increase as it expands its reach within government, and the sale of IT goods and services increases.

"Revenue growth of 9.9% over the medium-term is expected as the turnaround strategy ? which aims to build an appropriate organisation to improve service delivery ? starts to yield results through a more diverse service offering and client base as the organisation extends its offering to other spheres of government and government institutions."

SITA will use this income to upgrade its ICT infrastructure and build capacity to support the expected increase in its client base over the medium-term.

However, spending on goods and services will grow at an average annual rate of 10.1% over the next three years, driven mainly by spending on computer services.

"Some of the benefits of this increased spending include creating a shared services centre to reduce the duplication of administrative functions, adopting a standard operating environment to reduce costs, developing and implementing an IT asset management strategy to ensure the optimal use of assets, and providing syndicated disaster recovery capacity for government to ensure operating efficiency."

The treasury documents also note spending on research and development is expected to increase over the medium-term as it focuses on finding "innovative ways to re-engineer government business processes to ensure efficiency".

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