Integrated Financial Management System is close to rollout {writer: Staff reporter}

The process to complete the remaining modules of the government’s Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) is under way, and an announcement with regard to its rollout can be expected soon.

This was one of the messages from Minister of Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi, in his address to the sixth annual GovTech information and communication technology (ICT) conference held at the International Convention Centre Durban.

The conference was hosted by the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) over a four-day period in September, opened by President Jacob Zuma and attended by some 1 600 delegates from both the public and private sectors.

The wide-ranging list of topics and workshops gave delegates an opportunity to get insight into the ever evolving ICT arena and its impact on everyday business, including the growing threats of cybercrime.

Speakers included Apple Inc. co-founder and Fusion-io chief scientist, Steve Wozniak.

The theme of the conference this year was: “Connected Government – working together to do more”.

As could be expected, cloud computing and the related software for connected government received quite a bit of attention.

Minister Baloyi sounded an alarm that cybercrime attacks on government information security could be a possible threat to the mooted deployment of a government cloud.

He pointed out, however, that cloud computing is well positioned to help the government increase service delivery at lower cost.

“I must, from the onset, indicate that I am fully committed to SITA’s programme for the deployment of the government cloud, hence the significance for all of us to accept that we are all into it – the fight against cybercrime.”

Baloyi added that he expected the delegates to “consider the lessons that could be learnt from other countries and our own experience in using ICT to combat cybercrime, which is a necessity if South Africa is to embed cloud computing.”

Financial system

The more important news from the minister was on the IFMS, a strategic project that was initiated to replace current legacy transversal applications in use in the government, namely the Basic Accounting System, the Personnel and Salary System as well as the Logistics Management System.

The IFMS is a multi-stakeholder initiative involving, among others, the Department of Public Service and Administration, National Treasury and the SITA.

Baloyi said that five of the nine modules of the new system have already been configured for purposes of implementation, which are:

• Asset management;

• Procurement management;

• Master data management;

• Catalogue management; and

• Human resources management.

Once completed, the IFMS will consolidate and renew the government’s back-office applications and include other modules such as business intelligence across national and provincial government departments.

Minister Baloyi promised that the government, going forward beyond the conference, is committed to convene an interdepartmental forum to respond to the following issues:

• The acceleration of broadband implementation;

• IFMS accelerated rollout;

• E-governance implementation;

• SITA pricing sign-off for the implementation of the revised prices; and

• Finalisation of the government-wide ICT strategy.

As a developing country, South Africa faces an enormous challenge to bridge the gap that exists in “our highly polarised society, and information technology is sure to provide such a bridge,”said Baloyi. “This technology can serve as a means of addressing the historically imposed socio-economic divisions in our society.

“We need to ensure that all citizens – regardless of geographical location, economic and employment status – access valuable information about government services, which will ultimately empower them to make better choices.”

He noted that this year’s GovTech took place when the SITA was “well apace in the implementation of the turnaround strategy that we introduced at the last GovTech conference.

“We can proudly say that, having strengthened the governance mechanism and deployed men and women of substance at the top management of the agency, we have now begun to see remarkable progress in SITA performance.”

The outcomes that have been achieved thus far include:

• Quality ICT service delivery to the public sector;

• Proficient lead agency in the public sector ICT;

• Integrated public sector ICT supply chain management;

• Competitive pricing and financial sustainability;

• Effective ICT regulator;

• Effective governance and monitoring; and

• Employer of choice.

The minister announced that from this year, the SITA has adopted a new model for GovTech, which took place in a phased approach with focus on mostly areas that encouraged and facilitated stakeholder participation and the building of partnerships among stakeholders to ensure responsive and relevant services and an increased value proposition.

The GovTech conference has a strategic role to play in supporting the government’s initiative to modernise its systems for accelerated performance in delivering services to citizens, and in promoting governance and clean administration, said Baloyi.

He took the opportunity to report back on a ministerial industry engagement that took place immediately prior to the conference.

“Our commitment is based on the reality that the government needs to deliver more with less budgets, and therefore IT [information technology] must provide innovative ways to enable government service delivery,” he said.

“It must be noted that the impact of less government budgets is felt more on the IT space. Therefore, discussions… must also consider the impact of reduced IT budgets.

“As a government, we are clear that the provision of IT goods and services must be through a partnership with industry. I must emphasise that the partnership with industry cannot be onerous in favour of one party. It must be on a risk and revenue basis,” Baloyi added.

Some key aims arrived at during the ministerial industry engagement, on the way forward in the ICT arena, included the following:

• Industry to be given an opportunity to engage with the implementation of the SITA turnaround strategy and to input into the development of the government-wide ICT strategy;

• The government to finalise the engagement on the introduction of the restraint of trade post employment in the ICT sector;

• A code of good practice to be introduced in the ICT sector; and

• The SITA-developed small, medium and micro enterprise (SMME) strategy to be rolled out, to take care of enterprise development and manage barriers to entry into the ICT business.

Added the minister: “Our expectations are that the partnership with industry will also commit to the following outcomes: contribute to the development of the indigenous IT industry; contribute to the development of SMMEs; and contribute to the creation of jobs.

“These outcomes are key milestones for SITA as the prime systems integrator (PSI) of the government.

“The political mandate to the PSI is to improve citizens’ access to government services in (a) cost-effective and efficient manner,” he said.

“Key to this political mandate is the responsibility to modernise the government, and the initial steps focused in the development and deployment of the Integrated Financial Management System.”