Two contracts are expected to be finalised this week for the upgrading of back-office functions within the Eastern Cape departments of education, health, social development, and roads and public works.
The contracts form part of the Eastern Cape Interim Management Team`s (IMT) efforts to improve governance and service delivery in the four departments.
IMT programme manager Jeremy Timm says this is being done through a number of transversal projects to improve back-office support, internal controls, HR management, leadership and management, ethics and anti-corruption, and service delivery across the departments. There will also be specific turnaround plans within each of the four departments.
He says the Sinakho consortium is assisting the departments of social development and roads and public works, while Pytron will assist health and education.
"These contracts are being finalised through negotiations between the consortia and the departments concerned and will determine what is to happen in each department and the role each consortium will play."
Timm says back-office functions that were identified include budget and cash flow, revenue and asset management, financial accounting, HR planning and implementation, personnel administration, legal and general administration, procurement and non-personnel expenditure and liability management.
"These functions will not be completely outsourced to the consortiums but rather they will work together with department staff support and equip the staff in improving these areas," he says.
Payments for the support is expected to be structured on a 60-40 ratio based on the time spent on the project and on the agreed upon improvement of the output of each department in these areas, he says.
Depending on the work that needs to be done in the four departments over the next two years, the cost for the upgrading the back-office delivery is expected to run into the tens of millions, although a final budget has not yet been finalised.
Timm says the IMT is also in the final stages of negotiations with service providers for a tender to implement a pilot electronic document management (EDM) solution in the Department of Education. Once the tender has been awarded and the solution has been tested in the department, EDM solutions will then be rolled out to the other three departments.
He says an IT assessment for the four departments was also awarded to Molepe Consulting for approximately R30 000.
"The IT assessment examined departments` systems and infrastructure, made recommendations on needs and gaps, suggested possible solutions through private/public partnership relationships or outsourcing, and defined the criteria to assess the proposals of possible service providers," he says.
Timm says the assessment is being considered with the province`s executive council. It is not known when it will make a decision on whether to accept or reject the proposal.
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