Hon Chairperson, hon Ministers, hon Deputy Ministers, friends, guests and most importantly, my fellow South Africans, President Zuma said, on the occasion of the state of the nation address on 16 February 2012:
Let us work together to promote clean governance and remove corruption in the Public Service and in society in general.
One way to ensure clean governance is through effective monitoring and ongoing evaluation of the Public Service. In this regard, the ANC-led government has established many organisations within government to assist with effective monitoring and evaluation. The Auditor-General of South Africa and the Public Service Commission are two such organisations. The Auditor-General's report on the national audit outcomes says:
Information security controls aimed at the prevention of unauthorised access to networks, operating systems and application systems that prepare financial information were inadequate in 81% of departments. The State Information Technology Agency has also implemented inadequate security controls over wide network areas of the departments.
Let us all take a moment to think about the implications of not having information security controls on systems that prepare financial information in 81% of the departments. Not only could this situation lead to a breach of our national security, but it basically opens up departments to computer fraud and corruption. Fundamentally, the best way to be corrupt at the moment is not to be a senior official in government, but to be an information technology expert, because, according to the Auditor-General's report, there is no protection on the financial controls of 81% of our departments. I'm quite surprised that the Opposition did not pick it up, but the ANC, as usual, had to pick it up. [Interjections.]
The motto of Parliament is, "We, the People". We, the people demand that those who continue to fail at their jobs and place the ANC's national democratic revolution in jeopardy in order to steal resources, be permanently removed from their positions in this, the South African people's government. [Interjections.] Those who think that this people's government is a place where there are no consequences for incompetence, mismanagement and fraud must realise that their days are numbered.
The State Information Technology Agency is an entity that has consistently failed to deliver services to this people's government, and by failing to deliver, the Sita has failed the South African people. This failure has directly contributed to a situation where 81% of government departments have no security on their financial systems. The Auditor-General's report further says:
Eighty-three per cent of public entities had not adequately implemented controls pertaining to IT services continuity. Deficiencies vary between back-ups not being performed, business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans not established and data not stored offsite.
The ANC, the oldest liberation movement in Africa, that is 101 years old and that led the peaceful liberation of all South Africans from an horrific system of apartheid to the peaceful democracy that we see today, will not tolerate this situation. The ANC will not stand for anyone who tries to sell out the people for their own personal gain. [Interjections.]
We, the people, demand that those in authority responsible for this mess immediately put mechanisms in place to address and reverse this situation. How can we possibly hope to prevent corruption and deliver effective services when there is no security of departments' financial information, and there are no credible back-ups? Fundamentally, what you need to do is when you leave here today, go to your laptop, hack into the department, release a little virus and, since there's no back-up, by next Tuesday, you'll be somewhere on a desert island with hundreds and hundreds of billions of rands, unless this is dealt with immediately.
We further call on the Public Service Commission to monitor this corrective action and report to Parliament within three months on which departments are failing to secure their financial data.
As I said earlier in the speech, the Sita has failed to effectively turn itself around and deliver on its mandate. In my 2011 Budget Vote speech on Public Service and Administration I said:
South Africa cannot afford to be waiting years and years for the turnaround strategy of Sita to be implemented.
We call on the Minister of Public Service and Administration to intervene and take all necessary action in order to correct this situation.
My fellow South Africans, monitoring and evaluation of government departments and entities can also highlight success within government. The Centre for Public Service Innovation, CPSI, is one such success. Over the years the CPSI has contributed enormously to the betterment of the services that government can deliver. On a relatively small budget of around R21,5 million per annum, this centre of excellence has identified and initiated numerous innovations across our beautiful country. The CPSI continues to identify innovation practices for replication through its Public Sector Innovation Awards. For example, the best practices at pharmacies in three hospitals in the North West, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were shared, co-ordinated and replicated. We now have a model for all hospital pharmacies that is reducing queuing time at hospitals from hours to 30 minutes or less. The value and benefit to government and the people is in the saving in payment of overtime and quick access for the disabled and the aged.
Other innovations include the Honeydew Closed-Circuit Television Nerve Centre, which assists the SA Police Service to identify suspicious behaviour via cameras strategically placed in public areas.
It is achievements like these that should be applauded. [Applause.] We say well done to the CPSI. When peoples' ideas are shared, co-ordinated and replicated for the betterment of our society, the mechanism that achieves this should be replicated itself. The CPSI is one place where people can watch their ideas being implemented by their government. It is essentially public participation at its finest.
The Department of Public Service and Administration needs to establish mechanisms to grow this centre and expand its operation. The Centre for Public Service Innovation is an example of how, in working together, we can do more. I thank you. [Applause.]