The State IT Agency (SITA) will revise its costing model after several complaints that its prices are too high.
CEO Blake Mosley-Lefatola admits there have been many instances where people have expressed disquiet and dissatisfaction about the agency's pricing.
He says 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 CEO says once this has been completed, SITA will engage in the relevant forums to take the industry through the revised pricing and costing model. “So that we can put that matter to rest.
“We've also started initiatives to improve the efficiency and quality of our services by implementing the SITA service strategy and service framework.”
More with less
Mosley-Lefatola says to address the effects of a slow economy, governments are changing their priorities to address the critical issues of food and job creation. He adds that the change in government priorities has resulted in reduced IT budgets and IT is required to assist governments to deliver services with less.
For this reason, SITA's turnaround strategy necessitated a change in the SITA business model to improve support to public sector modernisation and to improve the ability of government to achieve more with less.
supply chain management function for improved compliance and lead times; reducing the tender backlog by 80%; and utilising the SITA-industry engagement/partnership model as part of establishing a SITA partner network that supports SMME development.
Drastically reduce
One of the seven strategic outcomes for SITA's turnaround strategy is to offer competitive pricing and financial sustainability to government.
Speaking at the annual GovTech conference this week, public service and administration minister Richard Baloyi said government commits to convening an inter-departmental forum to respond to specific issues.
These include the sign-off of the implementation of the revised SITA prices.
During his budget speech at the National Council of Provinces in June, the minister said the provision of government services on the Internet means SITA must provide wider service coverage for government through the government network.
“Therefore, the network costs must drastically be reduced, while the government network utilisation is optimised.”
He added that the optimal utilisation of the SITA next-generation network must result in the reduction of overall voice and data costs.
“SITA will drive the programme to ensure all government departments use the value-added services of the network.”
The agency 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.
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