Communications minister Solly Malatsi has called on the Public Service Commission to investigate problems at the State IT Agency (Sita) following a site visit to government’s centralised IT organisation on Wednesday.
There are several issues at Sita causing the agency to fail at delivering on its mandate, Malatsi said in a statement late on Wednesday.
Malati’s move follows criticism of Sita by home affairs minister Leon Schreiber last month, in which he bemoaned the agency’s inefficiency, saying delays are a “critical obstacle” holding up home affairs’ ambition to transform itself into a digitally enhanced organisation.
In his statement, Malatsi said: “Sita faces mounting challenges, including governance concerns, irregular procurement practices, operational inefficiencies and an alarming deterioration in service delivery. These issues, if left unaddressed, pose a threat to the agency’s mission and its ability to deliver value to South Africans.”
‘Urgency’
Malatsi said the key issues are:
- Service delivery failures: Numerous client departments, including the ministries of police, home affairs and justice, have sought exemptions from using Sita services due to its alleged inefficiency. “This reflects the agency’s inability to meet expectations and undermines trust in its capabilities,” said Malatsi.
- Governance challenges: Allegations of corruption, maladministration and interference at board level have raised red flags about accountability and transparency within the organisation.
- Leadership instability: High turnover at executive and senior management levels has left critical positions filled by people in an acting capacity. Divisions within the executive committee are leading to organisational instability and poor decision making, he said.
- Irregular procurement practices: Sita’s alleged failure to follow proper procurement procedures has resulted in contracts being irregularly awarded, tarnishing Sita’s reputation and raising legal concerns.
- Deteriorating audit outcomes: Sita failed to submit its 2023/2024 annual report for tabling, highlighting a “worrying decline in financial accountability”.
- Missed performance targets: Consistently “underwhelming” results against predetermined objectives have further eroded confidence in the agency.
“Recognising the urgency of these matters, I have formally requested the Public Service Commission to investigate a range of issues affecting Sita,” said Malatsi. The PSC has been mandated to investigate the issues identified at Sita as well as determine the root cause of operational inefficiencies within the organisation.
The issues at Sita are not new, which has been the site of endemic corruption in the past. TechCentral reported in June that well-placed sources within the organisation were concerned about ad hoc changes to procurement procedures without these “new rules” being documented in Sita’s procurement policies.
Read: Unease over ructions at Sita
The sources – with whom TechCentral met – said Sita’s bid procurement committee (BPC), which had been required to seek board concurrence for contracts worth more than R50-million, had been given the power to approve bids without the need for this oversight, up to a value of R300-million. The sources alleged that these changes were designed to accelerate the looting of Sita’s coffers prior to the election in May, where it was expected that political control of the communications ministry could change hands.
A decision to change governance protocols, the sources warned, weakened the board at a time when Sita was going through a difficult period with an interim board, raising questions about how the risk of the change was assessed.
Sita’s current board woes go back to former communications minister, and now deputy minister to Malatsi, Mondli Gungubele’s July 2023 decision to sack some board members, leading others to subsequently resign, over then-Sita MD Bongani Mabaso’s salary. Mabaso subsequently left Sita and returned to the private sector as Altron’s group chief technology officer.
Following a protracted legal battle, the supreme court of appeal in July denied Gungubele’s application for leave to appeal an earlier decision ordering the sacked board to be reinstated. But events that occurred in the interim, such as the appointment of Simphiwe Dzengwa as acting MD, were cause for concern among Sita stakeholders, including its largest union, the Public Servants Association (PSA).
“It has never happened before that somebody from outside [an organisation] is brought in to act as an MD without looking internally to see if there is anybody capable of taking on the position,” then PSA spokesman Zamani Dladla told TechCentral at the time.
“Also, when we look at [Dzengwa’s] profile, we see that he has close proximity to politicians, which is what worries us most.”
Prior to joining Sita, Dzengwa was special advisor to the minister of small business development, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, who was minister of communications – which has oversight of Sita – from 2018 to 2021.
Malatsi said the investigation will help improve accountability and enhance good governance at Sita, ensuring the organisation can deliver on its mandate. “This process will not only restore accountability and trust but also set the agency on a trajectory towards fulfilling its role as a cornerstone of South Africa’s digital transformation,” he said. – © 2024 NewsCentral Media
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