ICT News South Africa

SAPS must report on R3,6-billion IT spend

The South African Police Service must account for the R3,6-billion that has been allocated to it for 22 information technology projects that are underway through the State Information Technology Agency (Sita).

The chairman of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police, Sindisiwe Chikunga has demanded additional information about the projected costs of these projects and what they will cost to complete.

Reporting on the SAPS work so far Major-General Bonginkosi Ngubane says it has managed to deploy 491 mobile connectivity devices that are used for tracking stolen vehicles, firearms and missing or wanted persons and will start training people to use a new fingerprinting system.

It is also setting up a pilot site at the forensic science laboratory in Pretoria that will be used to test the integrated case management software that has been developed. The electronic docket system, known as e-Docket will apparently be rolled out by December this year.

According to Sita's acting chairman Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, the organisation is currently working on the service level agreements that are required by SAPS and these are due to be signed within the next few weeks.

The full nature of the 22 projects that it has undertaken for the police is not clear and the portfolio committee wants to know exactly what will be delivered to the SAPS in return for the R3,6-billion in it is spending. It has been given until 15 October to provide details of all the projects to the committee.

More on the State Information Technology Agency.
More on the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.

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