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Budget hinders ICT progress in the Eastern Cape
ICT budget remains as the greatest inhibitor of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) implementation within local government in the Eastern Cape. This is despite the fact that ICT is increasingly being seen by local governments as a mechanism and tool for service delivery.
“Without financial resources many of the other inhibitors such as skills and staff shortages cannot be addressed. One cannot obtain skills and resources without money and money will not be set aside if the capacity to spend it wisely is not in place,” says Adrian Schofield, ForgeAhead’s Head of Research.
He says other inhibitors include the general functioning of the departments which is still heavily paper based in some cases, and the lack of policy and strategy guiding the strategic implementation of ICT.
ForgeAhead in partnership with the Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG), the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), Telkom Business, GijimaAst and Arivia.kom hosted a Local Government Workshop at the Department of Housing and Local Government in Bisho to address these concerns.
The workshop brought private and public sector together to discuss the major constraints that local governments are faced with in delivering services to its citizens and find solutions, specifically ICT solutions, to these challenges.
As part of its annual ICT in Government programme, ForgeAhead conducts research about the use of ICTs in local governments, focusing on areas of constraint that are hindering the progress of rolling out ICT enabled services to communities. Through this research, ForgeAhead aims to assist private and public sector to highlight problems and find possible solutions to address ICT needs.
ForgeAhead is an independent research and consulting house, specialising in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector across Africa. The ICT in Government programme consists of ongoing research on the status and use of ICTs in government departments (national, provincial and local) in South Africa, with a snapshot of what is happening on the African continent as a whole.
During the workshop, ForgeAhead’s partners presented some appropriate and pertinent solutions to the challenges that have been recorded in the province, thereby offering solutions that will ensure the best service delivery to and by the Departments locally and provincially.
Also addressed was the development of shared service platforms where processes between local municipalities and district municipalities are integrated. This integration of processes is enhanced by the implementation of a basic IT System that focuses on communication.
“An ICT committee has also been established in the Eastern Cape at local government level that is highly active in establishing knowledge sharing and generating a ‘think tank’ around the use of ICTs as an enabler to service delivery,” Schofield concludes.
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• Provincial & Local
Government
• National Government
• SADC Governments |
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