The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies is looking to amend regulations governing the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
• This would allow for national and provincial government departments to procure IT services and equipment themselves.
• This is after complaints from departments who said that procurement through the agency was lengthy and costly.
The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) has said it will likely amend the responsibilities of the State Information Technology Agency (SITA). This comes after faulty service delivery processes meant that equipment such as iPads could take up from three to six months to be delivered to government departments.
The agency is currently responsible for maintaining and providing IT services to the government and all its departments and procuring IT-related equipment.
However, lengthy delays have caused immense frustration for Department of Home Affairs, the South African Police Service, the Department of Basic Education, and the Department of Home Affairs, who have asked the department to procure outside of SITA.
Speaking to Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies on Wednesday, DCDT director-general Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyani confirmed that Minister Solly Malatsi had reviewed the legislation that currently governs the IT agency.
"The Minister [Malatsi] issued proposed amendments to the regulations last year. We have received extensive complaints from departments about delays impacting service delivery and escalating costs. The review of these regulations will be [similar to] the process of devolvement [of SITA's power]," she told MPs.
According to Jordan-Dyani, the review will investigate whether a threshold will be introduced for IT services and equipment that could be procured by individual departments and not via the government's IT agency. This move would also mean that the IT agency focuses mainly on cybersecurity and IT services.
A similar proposal had been previously discussed under the leadership of former Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, who said that departments should be responsible for procurement valued under R10 million.
Jordan-Dyani said the threshold would reduce "numerous delays" on smaller IT projects and equipment. However, she said there is no time frame for when Malatsi will introduce these amendments.
The act clearly states that you need to source through or from SITA, national and provincial. It becomes tedious when you need to source an iPad or introduce new staff complement in your department. You experience huge delays. You must wait three, even four to six months for the service and equipment to be delivered.
Meanwhile, SITA has been subject to intense parliamentary scrutiny in recent months due to leadership instability, alleged irregular appointments, and dodgy procurement processes.
Last year, MPs also received a report from Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr into an irregular R1.2-billion tender for the Western Cape Education Department, which had been awarded to Blue Networks Consortium.
An oversight visit by the committee in December at the agency's head office had also exposed in-fighting between members of the board and executive management, which had also impacted service delivery.
This prompted an investigation by the Public Protector and the Public Service Commission into irregularities at the agency.
Currently, SITA is in the process of appointing an interim board after the previous board's term had expired on 31 January this year. The agency has also appointed SITA executive, Gopal Reddy, as its acting managing director, after former managing director Simphiwe Dzengwa's term came to an end on 4 February.
Following the meeting on Wednesday, the Portfolio Committee said it had put forward several recommendations as part of its oversight report to Malatsi. This included ensuring that there would be no leadership vacuums and referring the Cliffe Decker Hofmeyr report to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
It also said it had spoken with Parliament's legal services to invoke a parliamentary inquiry into SITA.
In a statement, the committee said the inquiry would look into the concerns of organised labour, high staff turnover, and governance and operational inefficiencies, which led to considerations from government department departments to find alternative services to SITA.