SITA CEO: Now you see him, now you don't

State IT Agency CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola has left the building, eight months before his contract was due to expire.

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CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola's untimely departure from the State IT Agency (SITA) is a blow to government's bid to spruce up the agency's efficiencies and operations, but has elicited scant reaction from the private sector.

Mosley-Lefatola's contract was due to end next January; however, he left the organisation on Thursday, and the board is set to announce the agency's 17th (acting) head on Wednesday, until which the board will run the entity.

The board has not revealed why it axed Mosley-Lefatola several months before his contract was due to expire, just as a turnaround strategy under his leadership is being wrapped up, and every contract the agency has issued in the past nine years is under investigation. It is set to announce these details on Wednesday.

Mosley-Lefatola - who in 2011 became the agency's 16th chief executive since its inception in 1999 - says his departure is not linked to his performance and that he did not initiate the move, but referred ITWeb to chairman Jerry Vilakazi for insight. "These things do happen, it comes with the job."

Almost three years ago, when the current executive team was appointed, the agency was in disarray. It had been plagued by a lack of top-level stability, and had also been beleaguered by large-scale corruption and irregular procurement practices.

The departure of yet another CEO at the state's procurement arm is a blow to its initiatives to trim ICT spending across government, and will further hinder the process of getting tenders awarded quickly. ITWeb asked the industry for its feedback, but none was forthcoming, as some companies were still pondering the implications, while others said the issue was too sensitive.

Ndivhuwo Mabaya, head of communications at the Department of Public Service and Administration, confirms Mosley-Lefatola has already left, and Vilakazi has indicated an acting CEO will be appointed as a matter of urgency.

Mabaya says Mosley-Lefatola's departure was a board decision, and Vilakazi should be approached for comment. Despite several attempts, ITWeb was unable to speak with Vilakazi, as he was tied up in board meetings. However, SITA spokesperson Jeanny Morulane says clarity around the "axing" will be provided on Wednesday, as will the name of a new acting CEO.

Mark Walker, director of insights and verticals for the IDC's Africa and Turkey region, says the departure of yet another CEO, at an average rate of more than one a year, becomes a question of continuity and leadership.

Walker says with a new broom more often than once a year, management will again change, and there will be no continuity for a sector that has already battled to provide services for the state's IT arm.

SITA, set up in 1999 in a bid to act as government's IT buying arm to trim costs across the board, endured another ruction when its entire board stepped down in November after a probe by the Special Investigation Unit was launched into every tender it has ever issued.

At the same time, it is wrapping up a three-year turnaround strategy, implemented after a risk assessment found a complete breakdown in systems and procurement practices. It also found large-scale irregularities within the organisation and its procurement practices, involving several of the agency's employees and other high-profile figures, including senior members of the South African Police Service.

Walker says constant top-level changes lead to short-term thinking, and short tenures make it impossible to implement turnaround strategies, which need at least two years to bed down. He says SITA's noble intentions do not seem to have materialised, and questions whether it should continue to exist.

ICT industry veteran Adrian Schofield says Mosley-Lefatola's departure will increase the uncertainty that pervades the relationship between SITA and the providers of ICT products and services to government.

Schofield says the sector is becoming immune to ructions at SITA, and has become pragmatic about the situation. The private sector has said the turnaround strategy has not led to flow-though improvements, as tenders still take too long to wrap up and the payment process is fraught with difficulties.

Schofield notes the situation at SITA does not, from an external point of view, seem to have improved noticeably. "This might be a generalisation, but we continue to hear more about SITA failures than successes, customers choosing to go elsewhere, poor relationships with suppliers, continuing corrupt practices."

SITA "appears to be unfixable", says Schofield. "Sadly, government is killing its own and the country's ability to benefit from technology through a complete lack of understanding at the political level of the enabling opportunities arising from good technology management. There are exceptions, but they have succeeded in spite of SITA and not because of it."

Schofield says while Mosley-Lefatola's exit is not a massive setback, it is disappointing and he questions why he could not last out the next few months and ensure an orderly handover to a successor.

"If SITA cannot be managed, it must be dissolved. Its work must be sent back to the departments or out to the private sector. The only function required is that of procurement management, to prevent corruption and wasteful expenditure."

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