It’s crucial for government departments to embark on digital transformation (DX), says Mahesh Srinivasan, CIO of the City of Mbombela.
However, the state can’t do this on its own, but has to look for support from the private sector and other entities, the CIO emphasised.
Srinivasan was speaking at the recent Public Sector ICT (PSICT) Forum event, which focused on creating a culture of innovation and collaboration in the public sector.
Held in conjunction with ITWeb Brainstorm and ICT solutions provider BCX, the forum brought together private and public sector stakeholders to unpack IT governance processes, areas of collaboration and innovation.
Explaining the role of a combination of technologies to achieve certain objectives within the public sector, particularly at municipal level, Srinivasan pointed to the implementation of digital transformation (DX) as a matter of urgency.
He added that DX can be a way forward to providing communities with the services they need.
Consumers expect more from government and want services delivered to them instantaneously, he noted. “They want apps, they want to be able to log-in and want a one-stop centre where they pay, access information, etc.
“If we don’t do digital transformation, my feeling is that a lot of the services are going to be privatised. The only people you will need will be the city manager and the head of the departments because the rest can be outsourced.
“It’s critical that we need to do certain things now.”
Dire situation
Referencing the audit findings of various municipalities and government institutions over the past few years, Srinivasan stated the situation has been “very bad”.
In terms of planning, monitoring and execution in municipalities, in 2020-2021 auditor-general was unable to determine where the funds went, he said. “The AG is struggling to link expenditure with service delivery. So what are the municipalities there for?
“Only 16% received clean audits, which means only 16% passed out of all the municipalities. Only 25% were found to be doing credible financial management practices. ”
In the case of IT governance processes, Srinivasan said the AG revealed controls are ineffective, with 75% of the 79 municipalities evaluated being shown to be vulnerable to abuse or misuse. IT projects exceeding budgets and timeframes are unjustifiable expenditure, he added.
On cyber attacks, the AG indicated 86% out of the 79 municipalities assessed are vulnerable to breaches and hackers. “The systems which we put in place in terms of cyber security are not good enough right now; we’re highly vulnerable,” noted the CIO.
“The reason I’m raising this is for us to look at the fourth industrial revolution and figure out where does blockchain, for example, fit in.
“Can artificial intelligence be used to check on value for money contracts, can we use machine learning to check on contracts? For instance, if I say there are 10 computers I want to buy and each computer is R100 000, while in reality it’s only R10 000, can machine learning help?
“If we take the data from all the municipalities in the country and private sector organisations where they buy computers and aggregate it, so that if I say mine is R100 000, the red lights flashing show discrepancies. When the municipal city manager approves such a transaction, he can see it doesn’t look right.”
Srinivasan is confident artificial intelligence and machine learning will make huge inroads in terms of service delivery, if driven in the correct manner.
Smart city ambitions
According to the CIO, digital transformation shows the culture of an organisation is digitally-oriented – the entire entity is transformed digitally so that it can move towards using the fourth industrial revolution.
For municipalities, this is key towards becoming smart cities. “We’ve been touting this for the past 10 years.”
In Mbombela, the city introduced smart metering, improved access to agriculture information via apps, introduced smart buildings and rolled out fibre in the CBD, Srinivasan stated.
“We’ve done certain things but we’ve not done like we should when you imagine a smart city like Dubai, for example. There must be more initiatives and that can only be achieved through public-private partnerships, which is one of the critical things.”
Key to successful digital transformation is having a strategy and plan, he concluded. “You have to know where you want to go because it [DX] is an expensive exercise, which may lead to a lot of wasteful expenditure and frustrations for everybody.
“Commitment must be all the way from the top, to the cleaner within an organisation.”
Share