R235m lift for W Cape IT

Johannesburg, 30 Jun 2009

Western Cape premier Helen Zille has welcomed the increased IT budget for the province, saying it will greatly improve efficiency in the province.

The 2009 budget for the province totals R29 billion and the department of the premier received total allocations of R780 million. Zille said the first priority will be modernising this department so that it is run entirely on the basis of best practice, and is fit for the purposes it is intended to serve.

Administration programmes received R40 million, while institutional development projects were allocated R92 million. Policy and governance initiatives received R124 million and ICT was allocated the lion`s share, with R235 million.

Zille noted in her budget vote address that IT systems had received the greatest increase in the budget - from R200 million in the previous financial year.

"There have been some improvements in this year`s budget when compared to preceding years; I also welcome the increase for IT. The increase in the budget for IT is offset by the decrease in the rest of the department`s budget by R17 million due to the economic downturn."

She said the department is assessing organisational structures, efficiency and skills development initiatives, and would address skills concerns through IT courses for 200 educators.

"In terms of modernising the department, we will also focus on improved IT infrastructure and systems, and on the standardisation of our IT systems as far as possible. In our IT systems, and in our monitoring and evaluation, we must follow the principle established by Bill Gates that the best systems are standardised, simple and user-friendly," she noted.

New priorities

Another new priority for the department would be to implement a project-driven approach to governance, Zille said. She announced the creation of a Strategic Projects Unit, which will drive key projects that cut across departments.

"Our new unit will also work with local government and our department`s IT branch to spread IT technology into municipal administrations and community facilities like libraries. And we are currently involved in talks with the City of Cape Town about a possible partnership with their IT department on the city`s broadband network project. We are hoping to ensure synergy between the city and provincial IT projects and prevent duplication. We are working toward a collaborative agreement in this regard."

She added that the unit would assist local governments to overhaul their bylaws, improve capacity building and general coordination between provincial and municipal departments.

Improving governance

Zille said the department would introduce a dashboard system as a key measure to improve its monitoring and evaluation role. The IT-based management tool would be used for the entire administration and, while it would not replace existing monitoring systems, it will complement and incorporate them.

The most important consequence of this system will be a close alignment between the overarching five-year strategic plan, the annual performance plan of each department, and the actual projects implemented on the ground in each department, Zille explained.

"The department will manage the system centrally for use by the premier and Cabinet, and every staff member in the province," Zille noted. "Financial information will come directly from treasury, and, therefore, manipulation or spin by under-performing managers will be difficult."

Zille noted the system would take into consideration past concerns by the auditor-general on performance management, adding that an audit on existing performance evaluation processes, to help fine-tune the dashboard, would be carried out.