One of the major reviews the Department of Home Affairs will have to undertake is that of the languishing Home Affairs National Identification System (Hanis), says director-general Mavuso Msimang.
Speaking after his first Parliamentary appearance since taking over his new job on 15 May, following his stint as CEO of the State IT Agency (SITA), Msimang says he is finding a similar set of problems that he encountered at SITA four years ago.
"The issue really revolves around leadership capacity. Things have gone awry because of the challenges surrounding leadership," he says.
Msimang says the multimillion-rand Hanis project is one example of the lack of leadership.
"The supplier contract with Hanis expired a year ago and yet no one has worked out whether to reopen it for tender, either publicly or privately, or to just extend it with the current supplier, or maybe we should just tighten up our service level agreements," he says.
Hanis was initially conceived in 1993 when it was realised the country needed to update its identity document systems and to use a smart card to replace the easily-forged green identity book. The initial contract was awarded in 1999 to the MarPless consortium, which includes Gajima Everest and hardware supplier Unisys.
Politicking officials
A MarPless spokesperson confirms the initial contract expired more than a year ago and the consortium is working on an ad hoc basis until a new policy comes from the department.
"We have experienced politicking by the senior Home Affairs officials who have not yet decided on what to do with Hanis," says the MarPless spokesperson.
She says the consortium was responsible for implementing the first phase of the Hanis system, including installation of the equipment, and it is now doing maintenance-level work.
"We have proposed an upgrade to the system, but have heard nothing yet," she says.
Msimang says the initial Hanis specifications may also have to be revisited.
On other IT-related issues, Msimang says the functioning of Home Affairs is related to a strong IT infrastructure. This means the right people have to be in place and possibly some of the other programs should be re-engineered to obtain efficiencies, he adds.
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