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SAPS, SITA relationship 'fractious'


Johannesburg, 04 May 2011

The relationship between the State IT Agency (SITA) and the South African Police Service (SAPS) is on thin ice, due to poor service delivery from the agency.

At a recent police Parliamentary portfolio committee meeting, it was revealed there was a breakdown in the relationship.

Members said there are problems relating to service level agreements (SLA) between the two parties.

Acting chief of business operations at SITA Andile Pama says there is a “fractious” relationship between SAPS and SITA.

Weak assurances

ANC committee member Annelize van Wyksays the problem is a reflection of a lack of joint planning and agreement between the two organisations. She adds that the lack of a backup system for the criminal record centre is a reflection of this lack of joint planning.

SITA CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola agreed with the observation regarding SLAs. He said the agency had interacted with head of information and security management at the SAPS, Mzondeki Tshabalala, and they decided the situation was undesirable and could not continue.

They agreed to have a joint session to address the budget and other general service delivery issues. Mosley-Lefatola said it's a work in progress and, at future meetings, would be a problem of the past.

However, committee chairperson Lydia Chikunga says such promises were made a long time ago and not fulfilled.

Self-service

Tshabalala said at the meeting that SAPS is very unhappy about the pace of services from SITA. He said it would like to improve its relationship with SITA, but the question is whether the relationship is relevant.

Tshabalala also said the SAPS would interact with SITA on a business agreement and it would go back to the regulations that governed the relationship, which stated some services "must" be provided by SITA and some "may" be provided by the agency.

He added that the "mays" will now be done by the SAPS. "If SITA was established to advise me on technology, I have not experienced it.” He said the relationship between the two needs to be re-looked at and redefined.

Tshabalala also stressed that SITA's recommendation committee for tenders was an impediment to service delivery, because it could take up to six months for a tender to be approved instead of a tender being awarded after 30 days.

Racing time

At the meeting, SITA submitted a report on the total cost of the roll-out of the police e-docket system to 363 police stations. Additional costs for 2011 are R9.8 million, with R179.4 million already having been spent in 2010.

Tshabalala said in line with the SAPS carrying out the services that “may” be done by SITA, he had made an undertaking in relation to e-dockets and he would maintain the undertaking with or without the agency.

Van Wyk says the system was supposed to be rolled out a long time ago and highlights that a lot of money has been spent on it.

Committee members agreed that the slow pace in the implementation of the e-docket system is very worrying and questioned where the hiccup is.

Government relations officer at SITA Nogolide Nojozi said the project is behind schedule and SITA is responsible for this.

The reason for the delay is that the agency did not have sufficient resources to go ahead with the project. However, the board has approved the appointment of additional resources and SITA is racing against time to catch up, according to Nojozi.

Forgotten project

The committee asked the agency about its involvement in the Property Control and Exhibit Management (PCEM) system.

Pama responded that SITA was not aware of the PCEM system. However, Tshabalala said PCEM is a SITA contract since it was signed off by the agency.

Agency members then said they needed to get feedback from the procurement department since they were not aware of PCEM, because it is still new.

Van Wyk says the answer from the agency is unacceptable; to first deny that it knew about the system.

SAPS focused

SITA asked for the department's patience since it is in the process of restructuring itself in order to meet the demands of its clients.

A turnaround strategy for SITA was approved by Cabinet in March last year and the agency says as part of this strategy, one of its main focuses for the 2011/12 period is service delivery.

The agency's mandate is to improve service delivery to the public through the provision of IT systems and related services.

Tshabalala said technology is supposed to impact upon crime and it must speak to complexities within the SAPS.

However, Van Wyk notes that SITA's turnaround strategy is a general turnaround strategy. She says the agency needs to provide a specific turnaround strategy that talked to SAPS.

Make up

The committee urged SAPS and SITA to mend their relationship. SITA was told to submit a written response regarding PCEM and other issues it could not answer during the meeting.

Van Wyk says there is half acknowledgement of the problem on both sides and there is no clear strategy on how to rectify the situation, or even an interest in rectifying the situation.

She says it seemed as if SAPS had already decided it did not want SITA, because it is not adding any value and is not aggressively playing its role.

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