More and more government departments are embracing technology-based services in a bid to eliminate paper trails and queues, and cut down turnaround times. It also reduces costs.
The department of home affairs has recently introduced a service where an SMS informs applicants of the progress of their documents.
Information and communications technologies company GijimaAst is helping to speed up e-government solutions ahead of a 2009 deadline.
GijimaAst public-sector managing executive Livingstone Chilwane said the firm was working closely with government to ensure that technological investment would deliver positive returns while meeting service-delivery imperatives.
Chilwane said: “The trick is to strike a balance between private-sector profit motives and public-sector deliverables; e- government promises to deliver better, more efficient public services and improve the relationship between citizens and the government.”
Chilwane said a one percent saving of costs could be worth tens of billions of rands annually, and would speed public procurement processes.
The company said the public sector was under tremendous pressure to have online applications and payment solutions.
Secure sites and payment mechanisms will mean identity documents, passports, birth and marriage certificates, learner’s and driver’s licences, social grant payments and pension payments will be just some of the services that South Africans can apply and pay for online.
GijimaAst said although national, provincial and local governments would have their own needs, e-government would create an inter-operability, privacy, security and accessibility environment.
Chilwane said other benefits of a technology-based system were transparency, policy implementation and minimisation of fraud.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Xolile Bhengu
Quelle/Source: The Times, 13.12.2007
