SITA making 'significant progress'

The State IT Agency (SITA) is making “significant progress” on its turnaround strategy, but the targets are not clearly measurable, said public service and administration Parliamentary Committee chairperson Joyce Moloi-Moropa.

This was discussed at a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee meeting last week. Members anticipate the strategy will be successfully completed by the 2014 deadline.

Ronnie Mabena, member of the SITA board and chairperson of the subcommittee on stakeholders, said there had been many challenges and it had been necessary to re-engineer SITA to ensure it was in a position to meet its mandate.

As a result, the turnaround strategy was developed last year.

Seven key outcomes were highlighted for the period 2010 to 2014. These are quality ICT service delivery to the public sector; being the proficient lead agency in public sector ICT; providing integrated public sector ICT supply-chain management (SCM); offering competitive pricing and being financially sustainable; being an effective ICT regulator; achieving effective governance and monitoring; and becoming an employer of choice in the ICT sector.

Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, SITA COO, provided details of the progress made to date in achieving each of the seven desired outcomes.

Achievements in improving quality of service include compliance with SCM processes, improving SCM turnaround times and responses to requests for proposals, improving guaranteed hosting and network service levels, finalising the SITA service strategy and improving contract management processes.

She added that e-government initiatives included the development of an Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS), identifying 10 key government services that could be made available to citizens online and verifying the identities of bank clients through the National Population Register.

The cost and pricing model is also being finalised, with the objective to lower the cost of ICT services to government.

SITA named this goal after several complaints that its prices are too high.

CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola admitted there have been many instances where people have expressed disquiet and dissatisfaction about the agency's pricing.

He said it now aims to ensure it lowers the cost of IT to government. “We are in the process of addressing that; in terms of finalising the costing and pricing model with the aim to achieve continuous price improvements.”

The COO also said issues of governance identified by the Auditor-General in the annual report were addressed by implementing the SCM policy and procedures and ensuring future legislative and regulatory compliance.

The items of irregular expenditure concerned the clean-up of existing contracts and are expected to increase in subsequent years. SITA received an unqualified audit from the AG for 2010/11.

SITA has had 14 CEOs in 10 years, according to Mabena. However, he said, stable leadership is currently in place and so much has been achieved by the agency.

Mabena said the partnerships formed with the industry would reduce the cost of ICT services to government.

The committee said this co-operation is welcome, but a major risk factor is the security of government data and information. Clear criteria needs to be in place and government must have the assurance that its systems and data are secure.

Mabena assured that there are sufficient legislative safeguards, and Ntshavheni said the minimum operating standards and minimum security standards were under review.

Areas requiring a high degree of security had been identified, and the work done on these systems were always conducted in-house. High-security systems included the systems for the state security sector, the identity data of South African citizens, and the encryption of ministerial cellphones.

The agency has also developed a system for declarations of interest of government employees for the DPSA. The department will issue regulations that the system has to be used by all other government entities.

Public services are provided by the Thusong Service Centres. However, not all centres have skilled assistants available to aid the public, said the agency.

For this reason, it is currently investigating the provision of government services via cellphone technology.

Moloi-Moropa highlighted that several Thusong Service Centres have not been connected. Ntshavheni conceded this and said she undertakes to ascertain which centres remain unconnected and address the issue.

Mabena said generally, automation and computerisation have a negative impact on job-creation as people are replaced by machines, but conversely, innovation creates more jobs.

He added that SITA programmes could potentially create one million new jobs in 10-15 years.

Peter Kgame, chairperson of the subcommittee on procurement at SITA, said staff relations have improved since management engaged with staff on a formal basis and ensured that staff skills were developed.

This comes after ITWeb in July reported that contractors doing work for SITA threatened to strike due to a lack of increases and non-existent communication with SITA authorities, among other issues.

SITA was initiated in 1999 to ensure government benefits through bulk purchasing of ICT goods and services; delivers e-government services; re-engineers the business processes of government to improve service delivery; and establishes an ICT skills development plan.

However, it has been plagued by a lack of top-level stability, as several permanent and acting CEOs have come and gone since the agency's inception.

The agency has also been beleaguered by allegations of large-scale corruption and irregular procurement practices.