Government scraps R1 billion IT project: report
The government has scrapped a nearly complete IT project, at a cost of R1 billion, in favour of a new system which could see cost as much as R3 billion.
The Sunday Independent reported that less than 10% of the R1 billion spent on an integrated finance management system, could be reinvested in the new project.
Government’s IT arm, the State Information Technology Agency (SITA) could also face a weighty legal bill, the paper reported.
A decision to can the current project comes at a time when it is 80% complete, while a new tender, put out in March, is still pending.
A spokesperson for Treasury, told the Sunday Independent that the decision is “strategic” following an agreement between Treasury and SITA.
He rejected the notion that R1 billion would be written off. He said that a decision to migrate the new IT system was taken by cabinet in November last year.
“A large portion of the amount spent to date was allocated to preparation activities, upgrade of integration capabilities and specification of business requirements…The decision to change I deemed reasonable in the course of the programme life cycle, and therefore not construed to be fruitless and or wasteful,” the spokesperson said.
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