President Mbeki's vision of Government Service Delivery to all South African citizens and the Batho Pele Programme of the Department of Public Service and Administration serves as the basis for SITA's Rural Connectivity Project.
The main purpose of this project is to bring the social security system (SOCPEN) closer to the people to make speedy responses to beneficiaries' queries and to eliminate the delay in processing grant applications.
Other objectives of the project include:
* To provide support for the decentralisation of financial and human resource management systems
* To facilitate the smooth implementation of Management Information Systems (MIS) of the Department of Welfare
* To facilitate integration within the department as well as the integration between this department and other departments
* To assist in the district development process of the Department of Welfare and in particular the province of the Eastern Cape
* To develop information management capacity among service providers as well as basic computer literacy skills in local communities amongst the youth.
SITA was, therefore, tasked to assist the Department of Welfare to provide network connectivity to rural and remote Welfare offices in the Eastern Cape Province, via the Government's Wide Area Network (WAN), already managed by SITA. To complete the project SITA teamed up with the National Department of Social Development, the Provincial Department of Welfare and the provinces IT division in the Premier's office. Working in partnership has been central in the implementation of the project and the strength of the partnership largely contributed to its success.
The achievements of this project are numerous. It created accessibility of services to the community, improved the efficiency of social security administration, as well as in personnel administration and financial management. Fifteen Welfare offices have also been connected with grid electricity and six computer training centres have been established for the department, that can conduct on-line training.
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