The Gauteng Finance Department (GFD) is working towards the establishment of a Gauteng city region (GCR) e-government governance structure to drive priorities, policies, standards and regulations, finance MEC Barbara Creecy said during her budget vote speech this week.
Creecy noted the GFD has been repositioning over the past year to deliver on premier David Makhura's vision to make Gauteng a smart province.
She also revealed the Department of Public Service and Administration is working on a revised strategy to tackle e-government issues across all departments and sectors.
"The strategy intends to promote a coordinated approach to service delivery in all areas of e-government.
"In the interim, it is imperative all our systems in the GCR should be able to talk to each other. It is also important citizens' interface with e-government services are seamless, whether those services originate at municipal or provincial government level."
Creecy noted provincial government has set up an ICT political steering committee, chaired by Makhura, which is representative of all Gauteng municipalities and provincial government departments. The committee, she explained, will facilitate interoperability of e-government platforms, as well as common standard and policies across the GCR.
"As part of our programme of promoting a common approach to e-government services, we will convene an e-government summit later this year. The summit will look at issues such as common services and applications in the GCR, as well as the interface of our systems so they are able to talk to each.
"We have allocated R3.2 million for this work in the current financial year."
Creecy noted some progress has already been made in implementing e-government initiatives at both provincial and municipal government, which includes the roll-out of the Gauteng Broadband Network, the move towards paperless education, and the launch of a service delivery war room.
"Furthermore, in the metropolitan municipalities, the free WiFi zone rollout programme has also commenced to address the issue of inclusive access to digital services.
"GDF is now squarely focused on implementing the premier's vision of a 'smart province'."
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