Call for new public, private partnership model

By Damaria Senne for Terrapinn

Johannesburg, 10 Nov 2005

The typical public, private partnership model is not working well for the ICT sector, says Jonas Bogoshi, client services executive at the State IT Agency.

Bogoshi was addressing participants at Terrapinn`s Government Technology World 2005 in Midrand yesterday.

According to Bogoshi, the key challenge that government faces is how to make sure the private sector invests in government ICT projects, but waits for at least 18 months before expecting a return.

He challenged the private sector to come up with a funding model that would be best suited for government ICT projects.

Return on investment

Another challenge that government faces is measuring return on investment (ROI). Bogoshi said ROI for government is more than about money; it`s about effective service delivery, improving the lives of citizens and political gains for the politicians involved. The challenge is therefore to craft proposals for ICT investment in such a way that the investment is aligned to government priorities.

In addition to his presentation on technology as an enabler in Africa, Bogoshi participated in a panel discussion with KH Hlahla, Home Affairs` deputy director general of information services. Dr Moses Ubaru, director general of the National Technology Development Agency of Nigeria, chaired the session.

One of the key issues that arose out of the discussion was how to motivate politicians to allocate investment in ICT, when they have basic service delivery challenges.

Bogoshi said as government priorities lie in eradicating poverty, providing homes for the poor, social services and dealing with HIV, so too must the ICT proposals indicate how they would make service delivery more effective.

Role of the CIO

Hlahla argued that ICT projects must be fused with government priorities, not just aligned. For that to take place, business processes in government must be put in place and work effectively.

"How can you speak about a technological solution when business processes are not there?" he asked.

He reiterated the position that is already prevalent within the ICT sector: the CIO must engage the business aspects of ICT. He must be able to take charge of the situation and determine which part of the IT portfolio should be done in-house and which should be outsourced to the private sector.

Retaining strategic control

"Whatever you do, don`t ever, ever relinquish strategic control of the project," warned Chris Haynes, senior advisor on e-government in the office of the deputy prime minister in the UK.

"I don`t believe the private sector should run countries," he added.

Discussions and presentations indicated there should be a change in the way government interacts with the private sector.

"We cannot continue to do things the same way and expect new results," Ubaru said. "If we want to see change, we must do things differently."

Government priorities

Discussing areas where African governments are investing, Jan Dry, Sun Microsystems solutions and technology manager, identified five key areas: enterprise resource planning, national ID and voter registrations, national payment systems, anti-money laundering and fraud detection systems and network infrastructure.

Dry said African governments have a skills shortage and need to put in place systems that would allow for skills transfer. There is also an acute lack of infrastructure, although mobile companies have contributed greatly to infrastructure development, he added.

Justifying ICT investment by governments when citizens need water, housing and food, as also outlined by the other speakers, remains a problem, he said.

The conference ends tomorrow.