The Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) has unveiled the human resources (HR) module of its integrated financial management system (IFMS) project.
The aim of this project is to drive efficiency within government and curb fraudulent and irregular activities.
The IFMS is a joint initiative between the DPSA, National Treasury and the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
The IFMS integrates IT systems that support HR management, supply chain and financial management in the department. The HR module replaces legacy systems Persal, Bas, Logis and Vulindlela, some of which predate 1998, according to SITA.
It also supports processes that include recruitment, employee movement, performance management, leave management, labour relations and exit management.
Boosting efficiency
Public service and administration minister Richard Baloyi, speaking at the IFMS HR Go Live event, in Pretoria, on Friday, said the system marks an age of a smarter integrated public service.
“Corruption remains the biggest single threat to good governance in our country and in the public service. Through this module we will be in a better position to eliminate ghost workers and the abuse of leave,” said Baloyi.
“This is the first implementation of the HR module in a government department. The implementation in the second lead site, which is the Department of Education, in the Free State, is already under way.”
Baloyi said Cabinet intended to integrate government back-office systems, as the older legacy systems, which currently provide financial, human resource, supply chain management and business intelligence, have reached the end of their life cycle.
“They were developed in a pre-1994 command-and-control legislative framework, so it is increasingly difficult to keep the systems aligned with new legislation,” noted Baloyi. “The technology which was used predates the Internet era by two decades.”
E-government system
According to Baloyi, if the DPSA does not have a modern, agile, Web-enable e-government system, it will not be able to support the needs of a developmental state.
He said the project, which has been seven years in the making, will support the HR management requirements of almost 1.2 million public servants, located in thousands of offices spread across 150 government departments.
Baloyi stated that the IFMS HR module aims to improve the capacity of public service to efficiently manage its human resources.
He said it also aims to align and automate HR management policies and processes, support HR reporting at a national level and improve the quality and access to HR management information, which he claimed should lead to better (government) decision-making.
In addition, the system is expected to improve expenditure management in order to ensure effective service delivery across government institutions.
Baloyi acknowledged SITA's turnaround strategy, and added that SITA is en route to becoming a fully-fledged prime system integrator for public services.
Since 2007, the IFMS team at SITA has developed five of the nine IFMS modules, which include: asset management, procurement management, catalogue management, master data management, and now human resource management.
He added the module will enable government to better manage the disciplinary process in the department and will automate the declaration of financial interests by senior managers.
Baloyi pointed out the department is responding to the president's call for job creation by using the HR module to manage the filling of vacancies in the department.
“Citizens will be able to apply for vacancies in the public service online through the e-recruitment portal. The automated recruitment functionality will also reduce the turnaround time of the filling of vacancies.”
Skills development
SITA CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola would not disclose the cost of the system, but indicated that it is lower than the current operating costs to maintain the department's legacy systems.
“This is the first step of rolling out the HR model in government and we are working towards the other national and provincial provinces, so that everyone will be in a position to reap the benefits of real-time efficiency,” said Mosley-Lefatola.
He said the project started after a mandate from government to integrate and consolidate the DPSA IT systems, as well as better position the department for skills development and training.
According to Mosley-Lefatola, the technical consortium that worked with SITA was led by SAP SA, GijimaAst, Epi-Use and IBM.
“The IFMS HR module consists of an innovative mix of software developed by SITA's software development team. We've also used SITA's next-generation network, in Centurion, to connect to the DPSA.
“The requisite capacity to roll out this mammoth project does not reside with just SITA alone. We need to form partnerships with industry to ensure success in its roll-out,” he concluded.
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