Effective e-Government Local Government
Written by Rodney Wiedemann and Pamela Weaver
EFFECTIVE PRACTICE
THE CHALLENGE OF SERVICE DELIVERY
As the true front-end of the public sector, local government is first in the firing line when it comes to the issues around service delivery.
Considering the many promises made at national level prior to the most recent elections, there is no doubt that all the spheres of government are going to be carefully scrutinised in this respect, and probably none more so than at the local level, where the interaction with citizens is at its keenest. After all, it is the services provided by local government with which the average citizen is most familiar, and therefore, the ones that they not only have the highest expectations of, but also the ones they most readily complain about. The Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) estimates that as much as 80% of citizen-government interaction takes place at the local level.
Despite the fact that it is the sphere in which politics should most readily take a back seat to service delivery, local government is perhaps the sphere most easily shackled by political in-fighting, inter-party dissent or citizen unrest. This is in direct contrast with the fact that it is at this level where service delivery can be most readily seen. After all, it is at local level that most of the basic services are provided – water, sanitation, electricity, housing, healthcare, social services and the co-ordination of a wealth of other projects that have a direct impact on the economic and social well-being of citizens in a wide variety of communities.
SERVICE DELIVERY MUST BE CITIZEN-CENTRIC
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THE KEY CHALLENGES FACING SALGA: • Lack of policy, regulation or legislation in regards to the management of municipal Web sites |
In order for these resources to achieve optimal effect, government has to apply the capabilities of proven service providers that have the ability to create the benefits associated with the efficiency and economies enabled by ICT. Of course, each of the various levels of government has differing requirements in terms of information technology systems. What one must never lose focus of, however, is the fact that while these tiers of government may be distinct, they must nevertheless work in concert with the citizen at the core, if effective service delivery is to be enabled.
With this in mind, government is now focused on transforming South Africa’s egovernment strategy into the next phase of maturity, which includes multi-channel access and interdepartmental transactional service offerings for all South African citizens. This quest for a Single Public Service further entrenches the citizen-centric approach.
It boils down to a Public Value Proposition, which has government as a public asset that is leveraged to deliver benefits directly to citizens, with the ultimate goal of creating a public value impact.
SALGA: taking ICT to the municipalities
The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) was mandated by the SA constitution of 1998 to assist in the wholesale transformation of local government from the pre-1994 regime to the new dispensation.
This transformation, according to Lloyd Kumbemba, Head of Unit: ICT at SALGA, involves 283 municipalities that are represented by the single voice of SALGA. Membership of SALGA includes metropolitan municipalities (classified as Category A), local municipalities, or Category B, and district municipalities, which fall into Category C. SALGA’s vision is to be the umbrella for an association of municipalities that is at the-cutting edge of quality and sustainable services. There are a number of ways forward for local government, all of which involve making ICT an important part of each municipality’s functioning.
ICT must be seen as an integral part of the strategic management, due to crossfunctional and enterprise wide support functions – in other words, we need to make the decision-makers aware of what ICT can really do at a strategic level, and that it is about more than just PCs and printers.
| THUSONG SERVICE CENTRES
The Thusong Service Centres (formerly known as Multi-Purpose Community Centres, or MPCCs) programme was initiated as one of the primary vehicles for the implementation of development, communication and information, and to integrate government services into primarily rural communities. This was done to address historical, social and economic factors, which limited access to information, services and participation by citizens, as they had to travel long distances to access these services. Thusong Service Centres are designed as one-stop, integrated community development centres, with community participation and services relevant to the people’s needs. They aim to empower the poor and disadvantaged through access to information, services and resources from government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), parastatals, business, etc, enabling them to engage in government programmes for the improvement of their lives. Government’s vision for the Thusong Service Centres is to provide every citizen with access to information and services within their place of residence and in each local municipality by 2014, with the purpose of improving the quality of their lives through integrated service delivery. By the end of March 2009, 137 Thusong Service Centres were in operation, making a crucial contribution to the expansion of infrastructure for access to information and services that citizens can use. Typical services found in these centres include those from the departments of Home Affairs, Labour, South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), Social Development, GCIS, and the Department of Health, as well as telecentres, the Post Office, libraries, agricultural extension offices and municipal services. Community development workers, the South African Police Service, NGOs and community-based organisations also offer services through the centres. |
As an enabler of business, municipalities must therefore better leverage and optimise ICT to integrate business process and systems, while it is also critical that they embrace the ‘ICT House of Values’, in order to increase productivity levels, thereby adding and creating value and realising a quicker return on investment (ROI).
Kumbemba suggests that leveraging on economies of scale in procurement and acquisition of ICT systems and infrastructure will also help, allowing municipalities to reduce the cost of running their systems, especially for those in Category C.
He says that municipalities should support and align themselves with government initiatives and programmes to achieve interoperability, integration and collaboration, while outsourcing models of ICT activities may be considered in some peripheral areas where it makes both business and economic sense, and remains within regulations.
It is important that ICT should develop user-friendly systems, and that only streamlined and engineered business should be computerised and automated, otherwise municipalities will suffer from ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ syndrome. Kumbemba says that ICT departments within municipalities should ultimately adopt a solution-centric, rather than a product-centric, model in delivering service to users. A solution-centric option allows for customised and tailor-made solutions, addresses business challenges directly, provides agility and flexibility, is more dependable, and ultimately is better value for money.
THE INTEGRATION GAME
While SALGA is working alongside municipalities to ensure the implementation of the above vision, progress remains slow. However, the focus among municipalities that are making progress tends to be on the following:
• Integration: The integration of previously disparate ICT assets, services and skills remains a key goal for all local government agencies. Many local governments are contending with multiple back-office systems, which are a key roadblock to interoperability and collaboration between different municipalities. Frameworks for collaboration are vital.
• Networking/telecoms: There has been a big focus on this area at local government level for some time now. Integration is part of the drive to renew and review network infrastructures, but telecoms costs and issues surrounding affordable access have added their shoulders to the wheel as increasing numbers of municipalities seek to roll-out or upgrade LANs, WANS and VPNs to deliver everything from linking up dispersed offices across large geographic areas, to capitalising on convergence to implement technologies such as VOIP and teleconferencing. Following the Electronic Communications Act, many municipalities are now moving to reduce telecoms costs by taking the self-provisioning route.
• ERP: The implementation of high-end ERP systems to manage core operations has been a key feature of the integration policies of the larger metros such as Cape Town, Tshwane and Johannesburg. As the private side of the vendor market increasingly moves towards solutions for multi-tier organisations, it is inevitable that, encouraged by the success of the likes of Cape Town, mid-sized municipalities will be among those rolling out these solutions in the coming years.
• Business processes: The medium-term goal of many local governments is the development of intricate business process management solutions to sit on top of and work alongside their integrated platforms. From intranet and portal technologies to knowledge management and government-specific solutions and things like roads maintenance, sanitation or electricity tariffs, municipalities are seeking to leverage the best that technology has to offer.
EKURHULENI METROPOLITAN MUNICIPALITY
Gauteng’s largest metro, Ekurhuleni (EMM), comprises the nine towns that formerly constituted the East Rand (Alberton, Benoni, Germiston, Springs, Kempton Park, Edenvale, Nigel, Brakpan and Boksburg). The region is sub-Saharan Africa’s manufacturing and industrial heartland, with more than 8 000 industries doing business there.
EMM has worked on the consolidation and integration of existing infrastructure, a process that began with a thorough audit of all IT infrastructure within the metro. A master strategy plan duly followed; workstation consolidation took place, with more than 8 000 PCs variously updated, networked and Internet-enabled. CIO Colin Pillay last year pointed to the importance of overhauling infrastructure as part of the overall e-government strategy of the municipality, underlining this with the fact that most of the activity has centred on the network. This connects all the major towns and is backed up by radio link.
The NGN
EMM’s next generation network (NGN) implementation, alongside private sector partners TCM and Cisco, aims to improve service delivery programmes while enabling economic growth for the region’s citizens.
The project is part of Ekurhuleni’s commitment to sustainable development and economic growth plan. One of the major challenges facing the municipality has been bridging the social divide by ensuring access to the Internet and value-added information services to all the citizens.
Ekurhuleni’s goal is to improve the quality of life for citizens by utilising technology effectively. This means developing an e-government architecture, which ensures efforts and infrastructure are not duplicated, resulting in service delivery complaints and wasted public funds.
Improving service delivery
The network will serve as a foundation on which e-services will be layered, resulting in effective and improved service delivery. This means that healthcare will improve as remote clinics will be connected via the NGN.
Also, digital villages that are easily accessible throughout the region will offer Ekurhuleni citizens unrestricted Internet access, an invaluable tool to students who will now be able to access information previously unattainable to them. Finally, citizens will be able to pay bills and conduct general administrative tasks online.
Ekurhuleni expects e-mail and VOIP to become the preferred communication media, reducing communication costs. The municipality has already realised an average of a 40% saving on the cost of telephony over the past three years. Certain e-Service enablements have already been launched in constituent areas. These include online rate payment systems, free Internet services to libraries and free access in the Thusong Service Centres. EMM, Cisco and TCM have also worked together to develop an e-strategy architecture for the delivery of e-commerce, e-communication, e-education, e-business, e-health and egovernment in general to all citizens and businesses.
Technology roadmap
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HOT IN THE CITI The Cape IT Initiative (CITI) was created more than a decade ago with the aim of creating a linked network of Western Cape IT players, increasing the attractiveness of the Cape as an IT location, stemming the loss of professional skills to Gauteng and overseas and attracting inward investment. CITI’s goal is to promote Cape Town as a global IT hub and gateway into Africa, thus facilitating the creation of jobs and prosperity through IT. Operating on a business-like basis, the organisation is answerable to its paid-up members and IT businesses and stakeholders. Although the organisation is registered as a Section 21 (non-profit) company, it counts both the City of Cape Town and the Provincial Government of the Western Cape among its key stakeholders. CITI also interacts with national government, educational institutions and international firms to promote the interests of Cape-based ICT companies. |
EMM has presented itself as a leader and role model to other municipalities, with the goal of attracting foreign and local investors. It has developed its information and communication technology infrastructure to enable it to meet the needs that the rapid development such investment will bring along with it.
As new markets emerge, EMM has also recognised the potential the industrial hub serves and has strategically positioned its information and communication investments to complement its industrial activity – the foundation on which the welfare of its population is built. EMM’s next step, now that its network has gone live, is to begin layering its e-government services to maximise the potential of the NGN.
THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN
With the departure of widely respected CIO Nirvesh Sooful in the middle of 2008, all eyes were on the City of Cape Town to see if it would be able to continue to build on its reputation as a leading e-government city. Sooful’s departure comes on the back of a more than 50% IT budget cut in 2007 and the challenges it was felt this would bring in terms of retaining high-quality staff to maintain its hugely-successful systems. The city has the most extensive ERP system of any municipality – the roll-out of this saw staff acquiring strong skills which, understandably, gives rise to concern that the lure of the private sector may prove too great.
The product of the merger of seven large-yet-disparate municipalities, the City of Cape Town has had to overcome some significant integration obstacles over the years. Today, it runs on top of its IT infrastructure, comprising an upgraded back-end infrastructure on a single active directory, with business-side buy-in and approximately 850 offices connected to the network. A key part of Cape Town’s e-government plan is the extension of ICTs to disadvantaged areas through initiatives such as the Smart Cape Access project and plans to extend the reach of the city’s network while reducing its running costs.
Andre Stelzner, a trained civil engineer who claims he has always had an interest in how business processes can be improved through the use of IT, has since taken over from Sooful.
Although Stelzner was only officially promoted in December 2008, he shared the acting CIO responsibilities for nearly six months before that, so taking over from Sooful has not been traumatic – for either him or the City of Cape Town.
Since the successful go-live of the various phases of the ERP project, he has been responsible for the ongoing support and extension of this system through the city’s SAP ERP Competence Centre.
Broadband – at last
Stelzner is now at the helm for the City of Cape Town’s next major ICT project: the laying of a fibre-optic network that will connect almost all of its buildings, and which is expected to cost R400 million. He says that this broadband project will help alleviate some of the connectivity challenges the city faces. Furthermore, the city will be implementing extended customer relationship management capabilities as well, in order to enhance service delivery to the citizens of Cape Town.
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CAPE TOWN’S BROADBAND NETWORK |
The second phase of the project is to meet the city’s 2010 Soccer World Cup commitments. This includes the laying of fibre-optic cabling around fan sites and areas that will be the most frequented by tourists during the period. This cabling will be mainly oriented for security purposes, such as the facilitation of close circuit TV systems to monitor crowd behaviour and reduce incidences of crime.
The last phase of the entire project will be to connect the hundreds of municipal-owned buildings, to improve service delivery and ensure the city’s IT systems are connected at the lowest rate. Stelzner says the total budgeted cost of R400 million, which was originally set almost two years ago, still looks like a viable estimate.
Smart Cape becomes a role model
The Smart Cape Access is an initiative aimed at ensuring that all citizens of Cape Town have access to basic information and communication technologies, free of charge. Smart Cape worked with the city to develop a model for public access that allows computing facilities with Internet to be provided cost-effectively, using open source software and existing infrastructure and resources.
The project began in 2002, with five computers being installed in each of six public libraries across the city as part of a pilot. By the end of that year, there were 3 000 registered Smart Cape users. Following the resounding success of the pilot, a decision was taken to expand the project to all 97 public libraries in the City Of Cape Town.
In the seven years since then, Smart Cape has become a Cape Town institution. It has more than 170 000 registered users in the 97 public libraries, and citizens now use the public Internet facilities for everything from e-mail and research to typing up CVs and assignments, applying for jobs and even playing games.
Smart Cape has now become a model for municipalities throughout South Africa. The project team has now worked on similar projects in eThekwini and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipalities, and has also been approached by the City of Joburg. With these projects, the Smart Cape team is living its dream of bringing communities online.
ETHEKWINI MUNICIPALITY
With Durban at its heart, Ethekwini is one of South Africa’s largest metros, geographically speaking, as it stretches all the way from Umkomaas in the south to Tongaat in the north. In 2006, boundary adjustments increased its area by 60%, but added only a further 9% to the population. The eThekwini Municipal Area (EMA) is largely rural in character, with more than 50% of the metro being used for commercial and subsistence farming and creating unique challenges for the city when it comes to bridging the digital divide.
Despite the reality that the bulk of its area is rural, eThekwini has developed something of a reputation for itself in the digital/smart city stakes. An Integrated Development Plan with a no-holds-barred focus on the development of sound IT infrastructure and policies, placing these at the centre of the region’s ongoing development, is a clear statement of intent. The plan takes into account the key areas of enterprise architecture standards and planning, risk assessment and continuity planning, information security and governance models.
Metroconnect and high speed connectivity
Late last year, the municipality launched its broadband service, dubbed eThekwini Metroconnect. The launch was exciting for eThekwini as it will not only be able to provide citizens with greater, high speed connectivity, but will also boost its revenue by on-selling spare broadband capacity. Dimension Data will manage the fibre-optic network, following the network’s upgrade to “Carrier Class” or “Next-Generation” status.
The initiative will see broadband communication rolled out at significantly lower costs for business and residents, covering much of the municipal area. This, in turn, will lower the cost of doing business in Durban, increase living standards and attract investment. eThekwini Metroconnect operates via an open service provider model, making it available at wholesale to licensed Internet service providers, content providers and selected public sector entities like universities.
Unlike traditional copper networks, the largely fibre-based eThekwini MetroConnect network will be able to offer far greater bandwidth – up to 1Gbps – and at rates significantly lower than the current incumbent copper-based telco offering. In addition, the cables are not vulnerable to theft, so will provide more uptime for users.
eThekwini head of geographic information and policy, Jacquie Subban, points out that the municipality has chosen to just work in the wholesale space as a start, and as a neutral player. Price is not based on competing with telecommunications operators, but is instead all about providing low-cost broadband and thereby contributing to the socio-economic growth of the city.
Subban says the municipality has always wanted its own network, in order to connect to its own premises. This would enable it to – for example – run a TV station for employees and stream information targeted at the public to its offices. She also indicates that the demand is only going to increase, as the municipality brings CCTV cameras online, performs meter readings and similar bandwidth-intensive projects.
The broadband plan will now enable all key tourism areas in the city – including the new stadium – to have free wireless Internet hotspots for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Building a Smart City
With the investment in infrastructure allowing connectivity to all areas of eThekwini, the vision to close the digital divide is now a reality. The Metroconnect broadband promises ultra-fast, high bandwidth connections, delivering a captivating array of services from a whole range of providers. The collaborative possibilities that connectivity offers are well documented, while the promise of broadband ubiquity is not simply more information or more forms of communication. The promise is better and richer services.
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DEVELOPING A SKILLS CORRIDOR eThekwini Municipality’s efforts to bridge the digital divide include a city-wide focus on skills development by creating an e-learning platform. Initiatives such as the SmartXchange Skills Corridor and the Skills Academy are also receiving the municipality’s full support. The Skills Corridor is an initiative that uses cutting-edge communications technologies to allow high level skills from anywhere in the world to be brought to SmartXchange – similar to videoconferencing but at a far lower cost. SmartXchange partners Dimension Data, Internet Solutions and Cisco have been working on the solution using WebEx, a Cisco communications tool. WebEx is a ‘virtual conferencing’ facility, connecting people all over the world, emulating a physical conference where everyone is in the same room. Robynne Erwin, CEO at SmartXchange, says it is warming to see how the municipality’s partners have responded to her request for assisting with the Skills Corridor initiative. The aim is to bring top speakers from all over the world to SmartXchange, via the WebEx technology, who can elaborate on trends and emerging industry information around ICT. The WebEx system allows data such as PowerPoint presentations to be shared and will enable all those present to not only see and listen to presentations in real-time, but also to ask questions and receive answers. The sessions can also be recorded locally on a PC or storage system and replayed or reviewed aft erward by anyone having access. |
Citizens will have access to online health advice and will be able to have a video consultation with a medical expert at any time of night or day from the comfort of their home. When they do fall ill, their stay in hospital will be much shorter, since medical staff will be able to monitor their condition at home almost as easily as on the ward.
Businesses will increase their productivity and revenue streams by implementing Internet business solutions such as Internet commerce, integrated logistics and supply management platforms, workforce optimisation and mobile workforce solutions, safety and security solutions, and integrated e-procurement.
Public sector organisations will share tasks and processes with each other in order to capture economies of scale and the benefits of specialisation. Their employees will have access to electronic productivity tools, such as online purchasing applications and electronic performance management systems, which will virtually eliminate low value-added administrative tasks.
Finally, advanced communication and video surveillance systems should also go a long way towards helping to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, thereby making citizens feel safer. Subban says similar Smart City concepts are already being powerfully driven by governments in places like Malaysia and Singapore. She believes this is the way to go for cities, otherwise they risk going nowhere fast or being left behind internationally.
PICTURE 1:
Service Delivery Centre in Alberton, Ekurhuleni.
PICTURE 2:
Cape Town’s Civic Centre
PICTURE 3:
Durban City Hall, Ethekwini Metropolitan Council