Gill Moodie
The government has taken the first steps towards unravelling the mess that is its information technology (IT) – and the good news for taxpayers is that government services are likely to become cheaper and faster as a result.
The master plan, unveiled recently by the Department of Public Service and Administration, kicks off with the creation of a new IT company, the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).
The state-owned company has already been approved by Cabinet, and a draft Bill enabling the creation of Sita is expected to be passed by Parliament before the end of September. It is hoped it will be up and running by the end of the year.
Setting up the agency will not cost the taxpayer as it will be created around a partnership of Infoplan, the state-owned company which services the computers for the Department of Defence, the Central Computer Services and the IT support for the South African Police Service.
Sita will not be allowed to do business in the private sector.
Infoplan, which has about 500 IT staff, estimates that Sita will save the government R300-million to R400- million a year. About R1,6-billion is spent annually on maintaining and running the thousands of computers used by the civil service.
“It’s been a free for all,” says Infoplan representative Gerhard Lange, who has been involved with setting up Sita.
Computerisation began in the government as early as the late 1960s, Lange says. But there had been no co- ordination between departments, on a national or provincial level.
Most departments had their own IT support and there had been extensive – and expensive – duplication, especially with mainframes which were not being fully utilised.
Compounding the problem, the civil service has been dogged by a lack of IT skills as professionals prefer to work in the higher-paying private sector or are taking jobs overseas. This has forced the government to contract out, raising further problems as departments often do not have the expertise to manage these contracts effectively.
However, EDS Africa – the local division of the multinational which counts the British government’s Inland Revenue as one of its clients – does think the creation of Sita will mean less work for companies such as itself.
Departmental use of Sita will be voluntary and EDS Africa, which manages IT for the Department of Finance’s government pension fund, believes it can work with the agency to provide a better service.
Company representative Adrian Labuschagne says there is a growing realisation in South Africa that it is good business to have people in-house who are skilled enough to work with outside contractors.
Sita’s strategy will unfold in three phases during five years. The first will see the end of duplication throughout government departments, especially in mainframes. The second will concentrate on standardising hardware and software systems, and the final phase will focus on outsourcing IT functions.
“Sita can’t deliver in the long term without a public-private sector partnership,” says Labuschagne.
In the past contracting companies have had to deal with 40-odd departments which have truly not understood how they are supposed to work with IT companies, he says.
Labuschagne believes management views towards IT in South Africa are five years behind Europe and 10 years behind the United States where IT is linked closely to an overall business plan.
South Africa still has to realise that IT support is not only about maintaining computer networks but about making sure companies – or government departments – can deliver to their customers.