GOVERNMENT departments could in the near future procure ICT goods and services without having to do so via the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).

The proposed decentralisation of the ICT function from SITA was revealed by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies earlier this week.

It came against the backdrop of a litany of complaints by departments about delivery delays and failures by the troubled SITA, which is mandated to provide and procure ICT goods and services on behalf of government departments and public entities.

Director-general Nonkqubela Jordan-Dyan told the communications portfolio on communications and digital technologies this week that Minister Solly Malatsi issued proposed amendments to the SITA regulations.

“We are embarking on a process of a review of the SITA Act with the assistance of the Department of Justice, the State Law Advisor, the task team in the department, and SITA to ensure the SITA Act will speak to the proposed regulations,” Jordan-Dyan said.

She also said the review of the SITA Act was similar to another process embarked on with the devolvement of the procurement function.

“We have been looking at the issue to say what the threshold is to avoid the numerous delays that we have at SITA.”

Previous ministers, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni and Mondli Gungubele, had looked at reviewing the SITA business model, particularly the bottlenecks in supply chain management.

Deputy Director-General Omega Shelembe said Ntshavheni had decided that all procurement up to R10 million be devolved to client departments so that those departments can procure for themselves.

“However, that decision was contradicted by the opinion of state law advisors who said such devolvement requires either SITA Act be amended or regulations be promulgated to allow that,” Shelembe said.

He stated that the SITA Act empowered the minister to promulgate the regulations to allow procurement outside SITA.

“In the meantime, we have been advised that the SITA Act be amended or SITA consider devolving procurement of up to R10m to its regions. Still, the procurement be through SITA but this is to be done to expedite the procurement.”

According to Shelembe, SITA has advised that its procurement of up to R10m constituted 60% of the volume of its work.

“It was felt that if it were to be devolved, it would alleviate the supply chain bottlenecks,” he said, adding that such an arrangement would require capacitating the entity’s regional offices to undertake the function effectively.

Jordan-Dyan said the feedback from departments was the proposed regulations could not be adopted otherwise they would conflict with the SITA Act, which provides that procurement should be done through or from the state agency.

“We don’t want government departments to incur an irregularity or audit opinion for the Auditor-General,” she said.

But, Shelembe said: “We are looking at the comments that have been submitted in response to the minister’s draft regulations and we are to conclude how best to alleviate the supply chain bottlenecks at SITA are both within the spirit and letter of the law.”

Gungubele, who is now the deputy minister, said one of the biggest challenges at SITA was the failure to implement the separation of the types of work the entity was mandated to perform - setting standards for ICT equipment and taking the responsibility to purchase.

“Unless we separate these, to me it is a matter for urgent review. It was a huge oversight to give people the authority to give standards and at the same time, have the authority to buy in the same space. This in my view disrupted the focus of the board at the expense of the main strategic reason why this institution was established,” Gungubele said.

Jordan-Dyan said the SITA board needed to reach a level of stability.

“It is our hope when we usher a new management and board. We are going to ensure they give focus on the critical role and ensure there is service delivery to drive the digital transformation agenda of the country,” she said.

Jordan-Dyan indicated that the department did not have a timeframe for the decentralisation of the ICT procurement.

“It is a priority and it is sitting within the medium-term development plan of the government. We will revert to the portfolio committee to provide you a status update,” she said.

mayibongwe.maqhina@inl.co.za