The Gauteng Shared Services Centre (GSSC) is no longer an independent department of the Gauteng government. Instead, it has been incorporated into a group of agencies now called the Gauteng Department of Finance.
According to the Gauteng Department of Finance, the GSSC has been placed under its supervision, primarily because of its long list of financial troubles, including a payment backlog of R1.7 billion, which it owed to hundreds of suppliers to public hospitals and schools.
The department has always received a big budget from the province, which has sunk billions into it to help it clear out its finances. For one project last year, in its Technology Services Division alone, the GSSC was handed a sum of R765 million and the Gauteng government covered the R1.2 billion to help pay the GSSC's creditors for last year's backlog.
Last year, Gauteng premier Nomvula Mokonyane lambasted the embattled GSSC, saying she would no longer tolerate any mismanagement from the department. She said it was not acceptable that the GSSC continued to blame its systems for its many troubles.
In the hopes of clearing out the rabble at the department, the premier instigated an investigation into the functioning of the GSSC. The report was speculated to spell death for the department; however, the GSSC last week denied it was to be scrapped.
Despite the denials, it has now come to light that the province has been quietly amalgamating the agencies - the Gauteng Treasury, the GSSC and the Gauteng Fund - into a single department. The heads of each of these agencies, including GSSC CEO Molaodi Khutsoane, will now have to report to the head of department who has not yet been appointed.
The GSSC has also confirmed it will be pulled into the finance department; however, it is adamant the shared service function will remain in place. Despite its new provincial slot, there is no guarantee that the shared services model will make it through the review process.
Gauteng government deputy director of communications Thabo Masebe has indicated that if the review of the model comes back with black marks, the premier would follow a recommendation to shut it down.
The quiet clean-up of the GSSC forms part of the government's plan to tighten financial control in the province.
While the timing of the review report has not been confirmed, it is expected to be completed soon.
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