While conversations between the public and private sectors at GovTech have been valuable, government now needs to follow up on these ideas with effective programmes, says GijimaAst.
Thoko Mnyango, managing executive of marketing, communication and transformation at GijimaAst, says the focus should now be on implementing and monitoring IT programmes to improve service delivery.
“When we take stock of our participation and evaluate the progress made, our observation is that although these have not been in vain, we could have done better. Our overall assessment is that real benefits in terms of ideas generated and implemented is minimal,” she notes.
GijimaAst has participated as a sponsor of the State IT Agency's (SITA's) GovTech conference since 2006. The services company has called for GovTech to become a continuous process throughout the year and not just an annual event.
At the end of each year's conference, there should be a list of actionable items with timelines, which the industry, public and private sectors, should prioritise, implement and give feedback on at the end of the year, Mnyango explains.
“This process could be facilitated through specific working groups that would be tasked to tackle specific issues from initiation to solution. There must be a reduction in the focus on technology -what we term 'technical voyeurism' ‑ with more focus on solutions and case studies,” she says.
Service first
She notes that GovTech was conceived as a forum to bring together public and private sector decision-makers to discuss how government can effectively use IT to improve service delivery.
While there is still more to do, some positive aspects came from this year's conference, Mnyango points out.
“Encouraging signs are there in that the corruption monster was candidly tackled in some of the keynote presentations at GovTech this year. We need to see these followed through with actions in place, on the many issues raised.”
Mnyango notes that, while there needs to be conversations among business leaders in both the private and public sectors, this must be followed by advances in implementation. This should be the rule and not the exception, she states.
Government must heed recent disturbances by citizens demanding better service delivery. This is a call for greater urgency in improving delivery and “anyone who stands in the path of this pincer is likely to be cut off”, she says.
“However, all is not lost because the current context presents an opportunity to accelerate the benefits of this forum for citizens. The key driver of this current context is a new government that is action-oriented.”
Share
