Subscribe

DST falls off track

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 03 Mar 2015
The DST is under immense pressure to meet targets before the end of the financial year.
The DST is under immense pressure to meet targets before the end of the financial year.

Less than 10% of the Department of Science and Technology's (DST) targets for the 2014/2015 second quarter were achieved, and only 15% in the third quarter, as was reported to the Portfolio Committee on Science and Technology last week.

In the second quarter, 14 (22%) of the 65 targets were at risk. One being that suppliers should be paid within 30 days after date of invoice and that the tender process should be completed within a 90-day period. The department achieved 96.4% of invoices paid within 30 days in the second quarter and only one out of four tenders went beyond the 90-day period.

Another target not reached in the second quarter was the installation of the third MeerKat antenna. The DST aimed to have it up by September 2014. However, the antenna was only unveiled this past weekend due to contractual delays by a contractor on meeting delivery targets.

The DST reported it is under immense pressure to meet the target of four antennas before the end of the financial year.

Last year, ITWeb reported that of the 21 knowledge and innovation products (patents, prototypes, technology demonstrators or technology transfer packages) the DST aimed to add to its intellectual property portfolio, it had only added one.

However, the DST reported to the committee that its Socio-Economic Innovation Partnerships programme was on course to achieve this annual target.

The budget confirmed that about 94% of the department's allocation of approximately R6 billion gets distributed to the entities. By the end of the second quarter, almost 56% of the budget had been spent.

Highlights from the quarter in the Research Development and Support programme include a trip by DST officials, and a team of astronomers, to the Netherlands and Belgium to strengthen astronomy and "big data" partnerships. As a result, collaborative opportunities were identified that will help reduce the lag in big data in South Africa, and a Multi-Wavelength Astronomy Strategy was drafted and shared with the Astronomy Advisory Council.

Share