The State IT Agency (SITA) is looking to secure the services of an executive head-hunter to assist it in finding and recruiting medium- to high-level management skills. In the interim, the board is making its own enquiries into candidates, says acting-CEO Nontobeko Ntsinde
Public service and administration minister Richard Baloyi appointed Ntsinde as acting-CEO in July this year. Instead of selecting an internal candidate, Baloyi revealed last week that he instructed the recently reconstituted board to select an acting-CEO from its own members.
“Among the immediate actions taken by the board was to appoint one of their own as the acting CEO to nip in the bud the escalating challenges in the management of the agency, while they go on with the most important task of preparing space for the appointment of the CEO,” he said.
Sources close to the organisation add the minister had little choice but to appoint from outside, as the strength of SITA's management teams have dwindled to the point of non-existence.
On Friday, SITA issued an invitation to 'head-hunters' specialising in scarce skills and senior positions to submit bids for such services over a two-year period.
The request for bid document asks bidders to specify their specialities in various fields, including executives, finance and auditing, marketing and sales, corporate services and IT. The 'executives' discipline lists “chief executives; executives (CFO, chief auditor, COO, etc); general managers and senior managers”.
However, the search for high-level skills to form the executive committee which will lead the organisation into the future is not on hold pending this tender process.
“Every board member has been on the lookout for strong skills - from executive to technical - that could boost SITA's current expertise. We have already identified and secured a COO who will start with the organisation in November,” says Ntsinde.
Ntsinde adds that the details of this appointment will be released in due course, now that the agency's annual GovTech conference is over.
The deadline for submissions to the head-hunters invitation is 27 September. Bids are required to remain valid for 90 days from the closing date.
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