Blame for National Treasury's bungled IT project is being shifted to Pravin Gordhan as the minister in charge of the department at the time the project was supposed to be implemented.
This is despite the State IT Agency's (SITA's) role as project manager of the integrated financial management system (IFMS).
The Star newspaper reported this morning that some sections of the African National Congress (ANC) have called on state institutions and law enforcement agencies to investigate Gordhan, former deputy finance minister Mcebisi Jonas, as well as former director-general Lungisa Fuzile for their role in the saga.
Treasury's failed IFMS is back in the spotlight following a sitting of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in Parliament this week, which slammed the waste of billions of taxpayers' money.
Finance minister Malusi Gigaba and Treasury executives appeared before Scopa to account for failing to ensure the successful implementation of the pilot phase of the IFMS project, which resulted in losses amounting to more than a billion rand.
According to Treasury officials, the first phase of IFMS was not working and had institutional challenges and delays, and that is why the department moved to phase two.
The Star reports a probe to bring Gordhan, Jonas and Fuzile to task has been called by those that have been described as president Jacob Zuma's backers.
The newspaper quoted ANC youth league spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize as saying Gordhan, Jonas and Fuzile "must be hauled before Scopa to elaborate on the financial irregularities and mismanagement".
The former finance minister has reportedly confronted the accusations levelled against him and labelled them as an attack to discredit him.
Gordhan "rubbished claims that he should be liable for the Treasury's failure to manage the implementation of the IFMS project". According to him, Treasury's IFMS is managed by officials and not ministers.
Project fail
Approved by Cabinet in 2005, the IFMS project was launched in the hopes it will resolve financial problems and replace aging supply chain, payroll and human resource management systems. However, 12 years later and over R1 billion down the drain, the project has shown no noticeable outcomes.
A public sector joint-initiative ? led by Treasury in partnership with the Department of Public Service and Administration and SITA ? the project aims to deliver an integrated financial management system to be used throughout national and provincial government.
The failure of the project has been described by the Black IT Forum (BITF) as another instance where government has poured billions into a technology project with nothing to show for it.
The BITF's Morena Ntsika told ITWeb that SITA failed Treasury by not being an efficient project manager in the implementation of the IFMS project.
Ntsika is of the view that SITA's role was to project manage and ensure the system is implemented according to what the supplier had proposed, but the agency lost sight of the project.
"...Nobody challenges SITA in its decisions, which is why they failed Treasury. Whether we like it or not, there will be nothing to show from this tender."
Scopa also criticised how government's procurement agency handled such an important project. "The State Information Technology Agency has contributed to this unsatisfactory situation by not assisting the department, which raises questions about SITA's competency."
It adds: "Scopa condemns the fact that National Treasury has already lost R1 billion on this IFMS project. It is also disheartening to find that despite this loss, National Treasury also spent R134 million irregularly by creating a project management office headed by an official working on a part-time basis, as that official is employed elsewhere in the department. Scopa believes the department cannot expect the IFMS to be implemented successfully while relying on an official heading the project with no information and communication technology and financial systems skills and whose attention is divided.
Despite this, Treasury notes the IFMS remains an important project that needs to be done.
Gigaba says what has happened with IFMS must not erode the trust the nation has in the Treasury as an institution because this was one lapse.
The minister noted his department will as soon as possible find a person to head the IFMS project.
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