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Service delivery on track - SITA
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PDF The State IT Agency (SITA) has defended itself against reports that its performance was deteriorating– saying that the implementation of a new business model and filling of top executive posts will ensure it improves service delivery.
Following reports on ITWeb stating that services at the agency was severely hampered – SITA has responded, saying it had implemented processes to make sure it becomes a high performing, customer-focused service provider.
According to the news site, despite the introduction of the turnaround strategy and appointment of top-level leadership at the agency, delays in awarding tenders had thrown the ICT sector into turmoil.
“SITA is well aware of concerns recently raised in the media by the ICT industry about tender delays and their impact on the industry and perhaps most importantly, the ability of government institutions to deliver services to the citizens,” said SITA.
The media report further claimed it took the agency approximately eight months to award tenders and that turnaround times had deteriorated over the years. According to the news site, under the leadership of former CEO, Mavuso Msimang, tenders took 90 days to wrap up, but now bids take about 250 days to be awarded.
“SITA acknowledges challenges that have negatively impacted tender turnaround times, namely SITA’s tender evaluation processes being characterised by cross functional dependencies; SITA being in turnaround mode with resource capacitation issues; and the high turnover at executive leadership level as well as technical resources within SITA inclusive of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) environment,” the agency stated.
However, some progress had been made. According to the agency, as at end March 2011, 40% of the backlog of tenders had been cleared.
The agency adds that there were more plans in place to improve tender turnaround times and assure the market that the trend is changing. Along with the implementation of a new business model to support the organisational turnaround strategy and the appointment of the CEO, COO as well as permanent executive staff within the SCM environment – the agency was optimistic stability would be achieved.
Earlier this year, Blake Mosley-Lefatola, was appointed CEO of the agency. This followed the appointment of Khumbudzo Ntshavheni as COO in November 2010.
“SITA is in a process of implementing a turnaround strategy to reengineer and transform the organisation to perform optimally and achieve service excellence. While this might have an impact on certain SITA services, the long-term vision of the turnaround strategy is to reposition SITA as a high performing, customer-focussed service provider.”
