The disconnected nature of systems within government has a major impact on the lives of citizens and the quality of public services.
This is according to Julius Segole, CIO of the Department of Social Development and chairman of the South African Government IT Officers Council.
He said during the Open Group Enterprise Architecture (EA) Forum at Gallagher Estate yesterday, that citizens are largely burdened with seeking information through services offered by government, and even with integrating government services on their own to access the one service they need most.
“Government is still largely disconnected and this doesn't spell well for citizen convenience and to deliver quality services,” said Segole. “In October 2000, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the then minister of Public Service and Administration, spoke about how government IT systems are not talking to one another. It's been a long journey and to get government systems to talk to one another has been less than satisfactory.”
Boosting interoperability
Segole believes an effective EA strategy and system interoperability will result in lower system costs, increased productivity and improved citizen convenience.
“Enterprise architecture is the foundation for all the principles and values that government needs to deliver,” noted Segole. “There's still a lot of work to do. There's a requirement for government departments to do strategic planning and establish an information plan.
“There needs to be guiding principles to assist government in order to better deliver services to citizens. Currently, it can take anything from six months to 12 months to share information with relevant systems. We have to redefine the mechanisms from scratch and make sure we have common standards, to ensure there is consistency across government.”
Willie Needham, State Information Technology Agency (SITA) chief architect, said SITA is in the process of establishing a workshop for data schemers for 34 departments in nine provinces. He added that SITA is also embarking on an initiative to develop an EA toolset for government.
“We are dealing with cooperation, interoperability and identity challenges. An integrated government depends on proper legalisation and ownership of EA. It's time that government departments and enterprise architects start to take responsibility.”
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