MEC Barbara Creecy protects public finances and use ICTs to increase service delivery

29 Jun 2017

Finance MEC vows to protect public finances and use ICTs to increase service delivery

Finance MEC Barbara Creecy says Gauteng Provincial Treasury (GPT) will use its R712.6 million budget this financial year to decisively promote clean governance and protect public funds; in order to ensure that they are used to deliver services to citizens and not siphoned off, for use by private interest.

The MEC is presenting the 2017/18 departmental Budget Votes of GPT and Department of E-Government (E-Gov) to the Legislature this morning.

“In our view improvements in public finance management and economic transformation are in no way incompatible and we believe we have shown in practice that it is possible to do both successfully,” MEC said.

“We pride ourselves in innovating the Open Tender system to restore public confidence in a fair and just public procurement system. We are also proud that over the last three years, we have spent R42, 8 billion of our R46 billion goods and services budget procuring from companies owned by historically disadvantaged individuals,” she explained.

Since its launch in 2014, 73 projects have been awarded through the Open Tender system with a total value of R12, 382 billion. This year 80% of new procurement in departments will go through this system and the Open Tender legislation will be introduced to institutionalise this process of procuring goods and services in Gauteng.

The rollout of the Open Tender will extend to five new entities namely: G-Fleet, Gauteng Growth and Development Agency, Gauteng Enterprise Propeller and the Gauteng Tourism Agency. Three local municipalities namely: Emfuleni, Midvaal and Mogale City will also implement the Open Tender system.

“I challenge all other municipalities to join us in implementing the Open Tender system,” MEC Creecy said.

The MEC also announced that provincial government has made a payment of R1.2-billion to National Treasury; paying off the R4.2-billion loan that it took in 2006 to fund the construction of the Gautrain Rapid Link Project popularly known as Gautrain.

This is the first of the two loans totalling R5.2-billion that provincial government took in 2006 and 2011 to fund the Gautrain project. The other loan of R1-billion was secured from Absa Bank in 2011 and will be paid off in September this year.

“I am very pleased that we have been able to repay this loan in full and on time. We are living in difficult economic times. Therefore the finalization of this loan will assist us to put more money in funding provincial priorities,” she explained.

Other key focus areas of GPT in this financial year will be:

Maintain unqualified audits in departments and provincial entities;
Increase government spending in townships to 40% of our procurement budget within the next two years;
Ensure all departments with the exception of the Gauteng Department of Health (DOH), pay service providers within 30 days;
Sustain our increase in own revenue collection; and lastly,
Source alternative funds for implementation of socio-economic projects.

Modernising public services to delivery services efficiently

Gauteng is taking urgent steps to modernise the public service and boost its re-industrialisation efforts; in order to take advantage of opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“This modernisation offers opportunities to improve efficiency and access to public services; develop the transparency and accountability of government, and empower citizens to better participate in the decision-making,” MEC Creecy said.

In line with this, E-Gov will use its budget of R1.3 billion this financial year to do the following:

Provide access to broadband to 3000 government sites in the province through the Gauteng Broadband Network;
To create an enabling platform and provide support services to all provincial entities in the design, development and delivery of e-services;
To establish the appropriate governance structures in the province to drive ICT priorities, policies, standards and regulations;
To promote the usage of e-Government services by employees, business and citizens in the province;
To stimulate the ICT economy through skills development for young work seekers, investment in innovation and incubation of emerging entrepreneurs.

As part of the broader plan to protect the provincial government against increasing threats of cyber-attacks, the department has also launched its own Government Security Operation Centre (GSOC) located at 75 Fox street. This facility is responsible for the continuous monitoring of the GPG ICT environment, including at schools, hospitals and other facilities to prevent such attacks from interrupting the services offered to our citizens.

“The GSOC processes and analyses information collected from government ICT systems to determine if there are any suspicious or malicious attempts to disrupt ICT services or to gain access to information that can be used for unlawful purposes. Once detected the GSOC identifies the sources and proceeds to eliminate the threats,” she said.

“During the previous financial over 32 billion ICT interactions were processed. A total of 125 million of these interactions were analyzed as potential security threats to our provincial ICT environment. In total, 5700 security threats were confirmed and all these threats were eliminated,” MEC Creecy said.

In order to give impetus to the Department of Education’s smart schools initiative, the department will connect 782 schools to the GBN in this financial year.

As part of the GBN roll out plan, the department has implemented the Voice-Over-IP in 38 government buildings in an effort to reduce the cost of making phone calls in the provincial government.

“In E-Gov the cost for telephony has been reduced from R370 000 in March to R241 000 in May this year. This is a saving of R130 000. We aim to connect a further 375 sites to VOIP in this financial year,” MEC said.

Furthermore, the department is fully committed to increase its contribution to the development of young people in the province.

“Working with the Tshepo 1 Million team in the Office of the Premier, and with private sector partners including Microsoft, SAP, Performanta, Vodacom, FNB, Accenture, Dell, IBM and the Department aims to assist approximately 110 000 young people to participate in training, work experience, internship and employment opportunities and programmes over the next year,” she said.

E-Gov last year procured 52% of goods and services below R500 000 from township enterprises. The department also paid 99% of service providers within 30 days; 95% of which were paid within 15 days.

What services will be on line for citizens in 2017/18

The Ntirhisano Tracking system for the Office of the Premier