SITA tells SCOPA it's being unfairly blamed by some govt depts for poor service

CAPE TOWN - State information technology company, SITA, says it's being unfairly blamed by some government departments for poor service.

The entity appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) for its dismal disclaimer audit outcome after the auditor-general laid bare poor governance practices and financial mismanagement.

Acting managing director, Gopal Reddy, told SCOPA there were misconceptions over the extent and nature of services provided by the agency to state departments.

As the company responsible for providing mandatory IT services to government departments, SITA's been fending off backlash in recent weeks that these departments were not meeting their performance targets because of their poor IT services.

A case in point is the home affairs department, with SITA on Tuesday defending the services it provides after Minister Leon Schreiber announced he was taking steps to divorce the department from SITA's services.

But Reddy said the agency currently only provides services to around 37% of state entities.

"The understanding is that SITA controls the entire landscape. It doesn’t. That non-mandatory side is quite large, especially in the application space."  

Reddy said that SITA was also not to blame for cyber attacks against government, saying the majority of departments were in charge of their own internal networks. 

In April, the auditor-general's office told SCOPA it didn't think SITA was capable of fending off cyber attacks in the state.

"It's a question of when, not a question of if you get cyber attacked. So, we help government departments to recover, and then we start talking about can we help you to secure your environment."

Reddy suggested if departments did involve SITA in their cybersecurity, they would be less vulnerable to attack.