The State IT Agency (Sita) has echoed calls for an investigation into the procurement by Mpumalanga’s department of basic education of 22 laptops at a cost of R2-million.

In a statement on Wednesday, Sita said there are “a lot of unanswered questions” regarding the procurement procedures followed in acquiring the laptops, whose inflated cost Sita described as “outrageously exorbitant”. The laptops cost the department more than R90 000 each.

Sita is responsible for setting up a “transversal procurement panel” for government departments that outlines pre-approved vendors through which hardware such as laptops can be bought. It is unclear whether Mpumalanga made use of this panel when sourcing the laptops in question.

“We established the transversal procurement panel to build the capacity of the state, not to destroy it. We find it extremely concerning that notwithstanding the existence of this transversal panel, which has both national and provincial reach, the department paid an outrageously exorbitant price for those laptops,” said Sita spokesman Tlali Tlali in the statement. “This attracts curiosity and must invite an investigative process to understand what really happened.”

Government departments are mandated to use Sita’s services for IT-related procurement. But the agency has denied any involvement in the procurement of the laptops. It said there is no record of the transaction on its systems.

How the Mpumalanga education department was able to bypass Sita and its procurement procedures in acquiring these laptops will cast further doubt on the agency’s ability to oversee all of government IT from a centralised position.

Under fire

Sita has come under fire from various spheres of government for its alleged inability to process procurement requests in a reasonable timeframe, which has led to cost overruns and project delays.

Some departments have gone as far as requesting exemptions from the rules that force them to use Sita. Police minister Senzo Mchunu and home affairs minister Leon Schreiber have both called for the decentralisation of IT procurement, leaving it to the departments themselves to make these buying decisions.

“Sita is an artificial construct that stands squarely in the way of technological progress, not only at home affairs, but across government,” Schreiber said last November.

Read: It’s time to end Sita’s monopoly over state IT

Communications minister Solly Malatsi in December ordered the Public Service Commission to launch a probe into Sita’s affairs. Malatsi acknowledged that several departments have sought exemption from Sita, but the process would likely require legislative changes.

Malatsi has, however, introduced regulations allowing government departments to procure their own IT services, a move that was met with sharp criticism from ANC MPs, including the chair of the parliament’s portfolio committee on communications, Khusela Diko.

Diko accused Malatsi of “bypassing the law” and seeking to “devolve Sita’s powers”, arguing that any remedial action should be aimed at empowering the organisation from within instead.

“The minister has merit on some of the issues that he wants to address, and he is well within his right to do so. But the minister has to follow proper process and stick to the letter and spirit of the law,” said Diko.

Meanwhile, Sita’s Tlali emphasised the agency’s importance in the IT procurement process by stating that the transversal contract Sita has in place, which was allegedly not followed by the Mpumalanga basic education department, has measures to ensure suppliers price their products and services fairly so that government pays “reasonable” amounts for IT.

Read: Sita under fire: parliament launches probe into agency’s governance crisis

Sita will meet with officials from the Mpumalanga basic education department later on Wednesday to discuss the matter, said Tlali.

“Price reasonability is one of the factors embedded in the cost-effectiveness requirements of all bids. The unit price which these laptops were sold at to the client has exceeded the threshold for a mark-up permitted under this transversal contract,” said Tlali. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media