Integrating National, Provincial and Local Government ICT Initiatives

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Integrating National, Provincial and Local
Government ICT Initiatives
ICT in Local Government Summit 13 15 September
2006
Gavin Mabie Department of Provincial and Local
Government
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Outline

• Drivers behind governmental integration
• Integrating policy and administrative
  initiatives
• Drivers behind ICT integration
• Integrating ICT initiatives
• Gaps in the national Integrating project

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Drivers behind governmental integration

• RSA is a unitary state with government
  constituted along three distinctive,
  interdependent and interrelated spheres
• Past is marked by separate development with
  resultant spatial inequalities
• Integration is a counter measure against spatial
  distortions
• Co-operative governance is a Constitutional
  imperative Chapter 3
• All spheres of government are inter alia
  required to co-operate with one another in mutual
  trust and good faith by
• Fostering friendly relations
• Assisting and supporting one another
• Informing one another of, and consulting one
  another on matters of mutual interest
• Co-ordinating their actions and legislation with
  one another

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Drivers behind governmental integration

• Integration is a pre-requisite for effective,
  efficient, transparent, accountable and coherent
  government
• Effectiveness and efficiency in financial terms
  value for money speeding up service delivery
• Transparency in terms of giving people a single
  view of their lives as citizens right to
  information
• Accountability with regards to the utilisation of
  public resources and administrative justice
• Coherence in terms of aligning strategies,
  harmonizing policies , coordinating planning and
  administration

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Integrating policy and administrative initiatives
1. Alignment of Strategies top-down big
picture first

• World View on development Millennium
  Development Goals
• Macro Policies RDP GEAR Moral Regeneration
  ASGISA Poverty eradication

IGR Forums Cabinet Committees Presidential
Coordinating Committee (PCC)
2. Integrated Planning

• National Spatial Development Perspective (NSDP)
• Provincial Growth and Development Planning
• Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Planning
  (ISRDP)
• Integrated Development Planning (IDPs)

IGR Forums MinMecs Technical MinMecs
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Integrating policy and administrative initiatives
3. Execution/Implementation

• Business, sectoral and operational plans of
  various line departments, agencies, regulatory
  and statutory bodies

IGR Forums Clusters (Social cluster, Economic
cluster) FOSAD
4. Monitoring and Evaluation

• Continuous impact assessment
• Tracking performance against Governments
  Programme of Action (GoA)
• Follow-up on iZimbizo Resolutions

IGR Forums Presidency Government-wide ME system
5. Communication

• Continuous to ensure communities are kept informed

IGR Forums GCIS Local Government Communication
System
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Drivers behind ICT integration

• GOVERNMENT'S IT HOUSE OF VALUES
• Promote IT systems security
• Drive interoperability between government IT
  systems
• Eliminate unnecessary duplication of government
  IT resources
• Leverage economies of scale in acquisitions and
  service delivery

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Integrating ICT initiatives
1. Infrastructure

• Establishment of the GCCN
• Consolidated more than 13 national and provincial
  wide area networks into one
• Administered by SITA as a transversal service
• Local government sphere not covered
• LGNet operates in this space currently for web
  only
• Should local government by brought into the GCCN
  fold?

IGR Forums/Agencies SITA DBSA
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Integrating ICT initiatives
2. Procurement

• SITA's Mandatory and Optional Services for
  national and provincial government departments

• Mandatory

• Optional

• Provide or maintain a PTN / VAN
• Provide or maintain transversal systems

• Training Application software development
• Maintenance of software infrastructure
• Data processing for department-specific
  applications or systems
• Technology or business advice for IT RD
  Management services

• Local government required to consult SITA for
  procurement of R50m

IGR Forums/Agencies SITA
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Integrating ICT initiatives
3. Governance

• Government Information Technology Officers
  Council (GITOC) comprising of all national
  departments, provincial governments and some
  statutory bodies/parastatals
• GITOC in conjunction with SITA is responsible for
  the following
• Set standards regarding interoperability
• Set standards regarding security
• Set standards for certification of IT
  acquisition
• Certify all acquisitions for standard compliance
• Local government currently outside this
  arrangement
• Should local government by brought into the fold?

IGR Forums/Agencies GITOC SITA
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Integrating ICT initiatives
4. IFMS and the Single Public Service

• The Integrated Financial Management System
  project under the auspices of National Treasury
  is a major step toward integration on the
  application layer. It promises to deliver an
  ERP- like solution to National and Provincial
  government department that will replace the
  current legacy systems
• Similarly, the Single Public Service under the
  auspices of the DPSA proposes to deliver to
  citizens a single face of government regardless
  of the line function department or agency behind
  the service

IGR Forums/Agencies DPSA, National Treasury,
GITOC SITA
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Gaps in the national Integrating project
1. Gaps in Governance

• Absence of government-wide frameworks such as the
  Information Technology Infrastructure Library
  (ITIL) adopted by CCTA of the UK.
• Growing dependence on information technology and
  a recognition that without standard practices,
  government agencies and private sector contracts
  were independently creating their own IT
  management practices and duplicating effort
  within their ICT projects resulting in common
  mistakes and increased costs
• .As a result we have varying practices in aspects
  such as configuration management, SLA management,
  change management, release management, software
  asset management, infrastructure management
• Although SITA has the mandate to set standards
  regarding interoperability and security a lot
  remains to be done in pursuit of a comprehensive
  set of standards.

IGR Forums/Agencies GITOC SITA
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Gaps in the national Integrating project
1. Project Portfolio Management

• Absence of government-wide IT portfolio
  management
• The eGIS project of the DPSA is a starting point
  but up to now we do not have a comprehensive
  portfolio of all planned initiatives, projects,
  and ongoing IT services (e.g. application
  support) in government
• Government-wide IT portfolio management will
  enable us to quantify previously mysterious IT
  efforts, enabling measurement and objective
  evaluation of investment scenarios
• IT portfolio management include entries such as
  application maintenance and support, which
  consume the bulk of IT spending. The challenge
  for including application maintenance and support
  in portfolios is that IT budgets tend not to
  track these efforts at a sufficient level of
  granularity for effective financial tracking

IGR Forums/Agencies GITOC SITA
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Gaps in the national Integrating project
1. Budgeting

• Budgeting is really a subset of portfolio
  management
• Some municipalities do not even have dedicated
  ICT budgets
• Due to haphazard procurement it is difficult to
  the total ICT spend for many departments and
  municipalities
• Massive duplication occurs across governments,
  but sometimes even within departments and
  municipalities
• Absence of Project Portfolios and repositories
  result in double buying which defeat the
  economies of scale objective

IGR Forums/Agencies GITOC SITA
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Considerations going forward

• Alignment of ICT structures to political IGR
  structures
• Local Government ICT finding an interface with
  the GITOC as a first step of plugging into the
  national agenda
• Mobilizing for better ICT resources at municipal
  level
• Putting ICT on the local government agenda
• Creating an enabling regulatory environment to
  deal with ICT challenges at local government
  level
• Closing the governance, portfolio management and
  budgeting gaps to achieve better integration
• How to bring local government into the fold to
  ensure universal connectivity

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Thank you Questions?