"While SA faces the same challenges as most developing nations in implementing e-government, it has the added challenge of having to extend and improve services to previously neglected communities," says Thabiso Tenyane, general manager for the public sector in Comparex Africa. His company works directly with central, provincial and local government as well as SITA, from an IT consulting basis but also in providing solutions, closely adhering to government's Handbook for Minimum Information Interoperability Standards (MIOS).
Much has been done already. One of government's key achievements has been in the e-enablement of the SA Revenue Services (SARS). "With eFiling and i-Tax, citizens can now interact with SARS and submit tax returns and IRP5 forms online. Citizens can also do online property ownership checks or bond registrations using their ID. As a result, bond registration has been reduced from three months to three weeks," says Tenyane.
But the reality is still very far from the e-government vision. Local government, for example, has quite a few disparate systems in operation and nowhere are these systems sharing or exchanging information. As a result, once a customer starts making an enquiry, he/she is being referred from one department to the other.
"Our solution is that instead of trying to identify the customer through a stand or account number, a customer database should be created and the customer should be given a customer number. This customer number will enable the customer to access all his or her information in the local authority with one unique number," says Tenyane.
Clearly, says Tenyane, the public sector can leverage e-government as the means by which to structure and render services around life episodes of its people, following a series of events from cradle to grave. "The e-government vision means that services become accessible to all citizens anytime, anywhere and through a range of access devices and media," says Tenyane.
He says government is giving itself 10 years to implement e-government, using that time to consult with public and private sector experts, formulate appropriate policies, plan and implement effective business strategies, and make the necessary technological changes.
Tenyane points out that e-government represents a huge paradigm shift. "Government is starting to view the ratepayer as a customer, taking on a much more business-oriented stance. As examples of this shift, currently elected councillors are referring to their term of office as the "period of delivery", and all senior officials are appointed on a three- or five-year contract period with specific key performance indicators."
He says the timing is right for e-government implementation and its delay before is logical in light of the political history of this country.
"Since 1994, government has gone through two main phases: policy formulation in the first five years, and now an assessment of the core processes necessary to implement these policies. The next phase, bringing information and communications technology up to date to support government's core processes, will include e-government."
But the government faces some serious challenges that are hampering the full roll-out of e-government, limiting it to ad hoc implementations at individual departments.
"The biggest key challenge government faces is in the lack of education and training of citizens, including civil servants, both in the use of ICT and in the culture of e-government, which goes against the traditional training of civil servants in a particular silo. E-government will require much more process-based thinking, where a department of health official for example can seamlessly point a citizen to another department or service," says Tenyane.
A few pieces of legislation have paved the way for e-government. One, the skills development act, will contribute to solving the lack of ICT education and training. Companies like Comparex Africa not only contribute a percentage of their payroll to skills development, but also will actively participate in committee meetings and training.
Another important piece of legislation has only recently been passed: the electronic transactions bill, which ensures security of data in online services and which is an essential e-government, as well as e-business, requirement.
While e-government as a policy and strategy is beginning to get 'buy-in' at interdepartmental meetings, he says the next step is to develop an ICT curriculum, because the local education system is currently not geared to provide technological training from an early age.
Says Tenyane: "All the departments have commented on e-government as a strategy. They are beginning to see ICT as a major enabler of service delivery and have identified the challenges to its implementation, which range from insufficient funds and lack of skills
Despite these challenges, a master system plan (MSP) can be developed in the meantime, with SITA as the state IT agency playing a pivotal role.
"What is needed now is a well-defined roadmap or blueprint containing plans to investigate the base elements of e-readiness, information interchange, technology relevancy and stakeholder touch points, including all of the present government portals and their suitability for e-government," concludes Tenyane.
Quelle: AllAfrica, 19.11.2003
