New department to transform and modernise the public service
The Gauteng Provincial Government has established a new department, to be known as the Department of e-Government, to improve service delivery, modernise the public service and stimulate the province’s knowledge-based economy.
The department is mandated to implement the e-Government Strategy of the Gauteng City Region, which seeks to, amongst other things, consolidate back-end systems and processes to bring about better front-line service delivery to the people.
In this regard, the department is finalising the architecture for a common platform that will enable all GCR entities to provide online and digitised services to the public. This will ensure that people will access public services at a touch of a button, and in the process saving them time and money as they will no longer have to travel to government offices frequently.
As part of this approach, government also launched a self-service Invoicing System, which is an online platform that allows service providers to submit their invoices directly to Gauteng Provincial Treasury, a major innovation in our ongoing efforts to meet the 30 day payment deadline.
The e-Government department will oversee the rollout of the Gauteng Broadband Network GBN, which will connect all government buildings and various public service access points, including Thusong Centres, urban renewal zones and targeted economic zones.
The establishment of the e-Government Department concludes the restructuring process that has been going on for some time to ensure that government departments are properly structured and aligned to implement the programme of action.
The Department of Finance, which was previously responsible for the functions of procurement, payments, forensic auditing, transversal human resources management and ICT, is disestablished. The ICT functions will be performed by the new e-Government Department while the rest of the functions have been transferred to other departments.
The Department of e-Government will report to the MEC for Finance and Boy Ngobeni, the current head of the Department of Education, will become its new head effective from 1 October 2015.
Enquiries:
Thabo Masebe
Cell: 082 410 8087
Email: thabo.masebe@gauteng.gov.za
