Information and Communication Technology Modernization in Department of Home Affairs; Report on oversight trip to KwaZulu-Natal

Meeting report

Briefing by Department of Home Affairs
Mr Sello Mmakau, Deputy Director General: Information Services, Department of Home Affairs (DHA) outlined the mandate and key objectives of the Information Services (IS) function in the Department.

Details of the approved structure of the IS directorate were given.  The total establishment consisted of 167 staff, with 35 technicians appointed at ground level to provide regional IS support. The approved structure was 49,7% filled, with 53.3% posts vacant.  43% of senior management positions were filled.

The total scope of the modernisation programme, consisting of 15 programmes, was shown.  Of these, nine had started and six had not yet commenced. The ones that were underway included The Smart ID Project, Change Management, IT and Physical Infrastructure Upgrade, the Integrated Revenue Engine and Live Capture.  The ones not yet started included the New National Population Register or National Identification System, the Executive Management System, the Call Centre, Visa and Permits and the Frequent Traveller System.

The way forward for the modernisation programme was as follows:
•  Implementation of  a definitive agreement / modernization contract;
•  Conclusion and signing of a subcontracting agreement with key stakeholders;
•  Building a development test site for live capture – HANIS environment;
•  IT infrastructure upgrade (data centres, bandwidth, environmental etc) – 203 offices already upgraded in the last three months;
•  Design of the office layout for modelling;
•  Implementation of priority projects with modernization program; and
•  Change management and training.

Smart ID Card Status
A pilot card had been produced and demonstrated to Cabinet on 25 April 2012. A printing infrastructure tender had been issued by the Government Printing Works (GPW).  Adjudication would be done in November 2012. A tender for blank card materials would be issued in November 2012 for personalization at GPW. Card specifications would be designed by a team comprising of DHA, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the SA Post Office (SAPO), GPW and the State Security Agency (SSA). The design and implementation of live capture was a priority project in offices where it had not yet been implemented.

Stakeholders
Stakeholders engaged on the smartcard project included the SSA, CSIR, banks, through South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), the  Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), the  South African Revenue Services (SARS), the Department of Science & Technology, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the Departments of Health and Social Development, the SA Social Security Agency (SASSA), the Integrated Justice System ( SAPS, Justice, DSD, Correctional Services), the  South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and SAPO.

Discussion
Mr A Gaum (ANC) said it was good to hear the Department had made provision for late-comers who did not cooperate as they should have, like the Department of Health (DoH). The card was supposed to facilitate communication between citizens and the government. At the end of the day, he did not want the card to lack the capacity to cater for future needs.

Mr Mmakau replied that the capacity of the card was currently 80kb, while the information on it took up only 25kb of space.  It could still accommodate more information. The Department had benchmarked the card against those in use in other countries, and the SA card had more capacity.

Mr Gaum asked what information about the citizen would go on to the card. He did not know whether all citizens would agree with all the information that would go on to the card. The involvement of state security could make people uneasy. Did the Department foresee that some of the information could be controversial?  How did it plan to deal with that?

Mr Mmakau replied that the role of state security in the development of the card was focussed on the physical security of the card. DHA did not know all the information that would eventually be included on the card.  Only the GPW would be able to transfer information to the chip and nobody would be able to change that information. The information on the card would be no more controversial than the information in the green ID book currently in use. The smart ID card would only be more secure against abuse and falsification.  
Mr Vusi Mkhize, Deputy Director General: Civil Services, DHA,  added that State security had played a part in the design of the card. It was not interested in the information of citizens on the card. The card had unique attributes which were not found on any ID card from any other country, which made it identifiable as South African. There were security features embedded in the card, which only the State Security Department could access and assist the DHA with. The State Security Department was also part of the design process of the currently used passport.  Its interest was in the security of the identity of the card and not the personal information of citizens. Citizens had no reason to be concerned.

Mr Gaum asked to what extent, if at all, the department engaged with municipalities on this issue, and whether the driver’s licence would also be included on this card.

Mr Mmakau replied that on 25 April 2012, the Minister had spoken to the Minister of Transport about how the driver’s licence would be integrated with the smart ID card, and the Minister of Transport had said that the main reason for not combining the two documents was that the driver’s licence expired every five years. It was also the practice in many countries to keep them separate.

The Department had engaged with many organisations and organs of state which would need to put information on the card, but it had not engaged with municipalities, because at this stage there was no need to.  However, it was not too late. Information could still be added.

Mr Gaum asked for time-frames. How was the roll-out going to work?

Mr M De Freitas (DA) asked for a list of time-frames for the various milestones the presentation had referred to.

Ms N Mnisi (ANC) asked what the time-frames were for the new ID system and the National Population Register.

Mr Mmakau replied that the Department was finalising the project plan in respect of some key projects. It did not want to make uninformed estimates of time-frames. The next time it would present some time-frames. The Smart ID Card and live capture projects would be rolled out in the new financial year.

Mr Mkhize, added that timelines would be mapped out and presented accordingly.

Mr Mmakau said the Department was still discussing the implementation process with the Minister for guidance. There was a suggestion that the process had to start with Members of Parliament, and then move towards senior citizens, and then to the rest of the population in stages. The process was under discussion and the plan needed to be ratified by the Minister before it could be put into action. The strategy would have to be incremental in order to cope. The Department would not use a ‘Big Bang’ approach. Once the Minister had ratified the plan, it would be presented to the Portfolio Committee.

Mr De Freitas referred to the organogram of the organisation, and asked whether an analysis had been done to measure the structure for efficiency in relation to the strategy and programme.

Mr Mmakau replied that the Department had done the analysis in terms of the structure. The strategy was followed by the structure. The Department had formulated the strategy and decided that it had to have this capacity in order to execute the strategy. 

Mr M Mnqasela (DA) welcomed the good work done by the DHA, although the staffing arrangements in the Department were a cause for concern.  Staff would have to be retrained on the new technologies. The presentation had stated that some employees were worried about losing their jobs and there was uncertainty in this regard. The Department had minimised the use of consultants.

 Mr Mkhize replied that part of the role of a change management system was to make sure that when people were faced with a change in technology, they had to be made aware of the fact that technology was their friend and not a cause for uncertainty.   Employees would be part of the plan. The Department would engage with the relevant unions on the issues. As part of change management, people would be up-skilled. The Department was certain that people would benefit more. The technology created a need for additional people. The Department needed to make sure that it recruited people who had the correct skills to cope with the technology and the levels of service required.

Mr Mnqasela said that with only 43% of posts filled at SMS level and 50.3% vacant, how did the Department expect to drive this project at speed?  Did the Department assess the kind of skills required for this project? Did it consider recruiting people from outside the country in order to fulfil the skills requirements?

Mr Mmakau replied that the percentages of 43% and 49% were due to the fact that many posts had been added to the structure, and they would all soon be filled.  When the posts had been filled, the capacity in the Department would be good for the next five years.  The full IT team was working on the current projects and they would train the officials on the technology to implement the Smart ID Card and Live Capture.  Consultants and assistants from the outside would help with training people on the systems. The approach used, was to train staff on simulated programmes.  By the time the roll-out happened, the staff would be trained and ready to go live on the new system.  This was the change management system used. The Director General (DG) had given an instruction that each province would have a standing item on the DHA modernisation programme to make sure that people talked about it and understood the implications.

The development of internal capacity and IT systems was a mandate given by the previous Minister. The Department had continued with it. Members should not be alarmed that only 53% of vacancies were filled, because the structure had been increased and expanded dramatically.  Previously, the 49 technicians employed in the provinces were all consultants. The slide showing the organogram of the directorate had shown that 35 technicians had been appointed in the provinces, replacing consultants. The Department was in the process of filling the vacancies.

Mr Mnqasela asked how the DHS, SASSA and the Health Department, would be able to use the National Population Register (NPR) to deal with corruption in these departments.

Mr Mmakau replied that when the system had been rolled out, all information would be available in real time.  This meant that if somebody was applying for a document in Port Elizabeth, that information would be visible to an official in a DHA office in Musina, in real time.

The Chairperson said it was a problem that the different government departments did not talk to each other. She asked whether immigrants applying for documents at different DHA offices would be picked up by the system.

Mr Mmakau replied, regarding the NPR, that the only difference between now and the future was that in future, the NPR would be automated. Currently it took days to get information. With the new system, the information would be available in real time.

Ms P Petersen-Maduna (ANC) asked how SASSA and the DHS would access DHA records to verify the identity of applicants.

Ms Mmakau replied that the DHA had a mechanism which integrated its system with that of SASSA, This  meant SASSA had access to DHA records.  The DHA would continue to improve the NPR and automate it more completely. It went through this process with all the organisations which needed access to DHA records and databases – for example, banks.  There was a manual process in place to verify the identities of citizens for those departments which were not integrated, or for when the system was offline.

Mr Mnqasela asked whether the current infrastructure of the DHA was compatible with the requirements to roll out the new technology. Was there sufficient equipment and funds to acquire the infrastructure needed for the implementation phase?  What were the gaps?  The Committee wanted to prioritise the smart ID card.

Ms Mnisi asked whether the DHA offices throughout the country were equipped with the correct apparatus to read the new ID cards. What did the roll-out plan look like?

Mr Mmakau replied that the current infrastructure was able to handle anything the new technologies required from it. The 203 offices mentioned in the presentation, had been upgraded in order to be able to handle the demands of the new technologies.   The upgrade had centred on two key things – an increase in bandwidth, and dealing with environmental factors, like power failures.  Uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), switches and routers had been implemented to mitigate and prevent data loss due to power failures. The Department had standardised on CISCO switches and routers, which were the best available in the world. Most importantly, the data centre at head office had been set up on the state-of-the-art Hallmark platform. The environment was ready to take on any technology that had to be implemented.

The Department was starting to pay attention to the Thusong Centres, because it did not have complete control over them. It had put its satellite technology there, because some of these centres did not have data lines.  The Department wanted to make sure citizens were not adversely affected when they went to those areas.

Mr Mmakau said there was a UPS at head office. Three weeks previously there had been a power failure in Pretoria. For the DHA it was business as usual, as it had not been affected at all.  It would still improve more. It was implementing a Disaster Recovery System in the form of a back-up centre 30km away from the head office, with a replication of the infrastructure and information at the head office.

The Chairperson said the DHA had indicated it was developing internal capacity. The mobile units were not functioning properly. Was the Department able to address these issues with the new capacity?

Mr De Freitas asked how the Department had managed to minimise the use of consultants on a project that required this level of specialist knowledge.

Mr Mmakau replied that the Department had agreed to remove consultants, and it had been able to deal with the consequences, as officials now did the jobs. There were no consultants working on the smart card project. The DHA was the only government department which had created specialist positions at level 13 and upward in IT. The DHA had had a specialist working at staff level 13 who did not have any staff reporting to him. He was an infrastructure specialist. In other departments, there were only managers employed at that level, and the Department had had to get special permission from the DPSA to appoint the person at that level.

The Chairperson said she did not understand what was meant on page 10 of the presentation by “the subcontracting agreement”, and on page 12, “the tender for a blank card material to be issued.”  She asked how it was going to work.

Mr Makkau replied that there was a definitive agreement, which was more like an umbrella contract between the DHA and the service provider. Under that, there was sub-contracting.  There was a clause that said the DHA could go to any best supplier and could have a sub-contract with them to implement one of the projects within the modernisation. If it was going to use SARS, it had to have a sub-contracting agreement with SARS. This arrangement gave the DHA the flexibility it needed to implement the modernisation project.  Because of the technology needed, the open tender system by which departments normally procured, was unsuitable for this situation. There was a committee to select the best suppliers from a few possibilities, and these became subcontractors.

There were two tenders: one was for printing equipment, and the other for blank cards.  Government Printing Works (GPW) would print the card. GPW was a centre of excellence for the DHA. It still needed a supplier to assemble card.  Once assembled, it would go to the DHA. The previous Minister’s vision was that the card should be assembled in-house at the DHA. However, for the next 18 months it would procure the blank cards. Afterwards it would be assembled in-house.

Ms D Mathebe (ANC) referred to slide 9 regarding the issue of the electronic queue management system. Since 1994 there had been long queues at SA’s ports of entry. How soon would the new technology be implemented at the country’s ports of entry?

Mr Mmakau replied that Ms Mathebe was correct that there were long queues at the ports of entry. Currently the offices of the DHA were being prioritised, after which it would be the turn of the immigration offices at the ports of entry and the refugee centres. The bigger plan included ports of entry, but the DHA had not prioritised it for this financial year.

Ms T Gasebonwe (ANC) said the presentation had not mentioned the refugee system. Was it included? If not, what were the reasons?  

Mr Mmakau replied that the National Identification System, with biometric information, would replace the National Population Register which was used in civic services and the National Immigration Information System currently in use in refugee centres.  He added that slide 8, bullet number 5, referring to e-permitting and e-visa, were programmes to issue these documents electronically, which meant that applicants could avoid standing in long queues.

The Trusted Traveller Programme, which was also located within Immigration Services, was designed for people who had to cross national borders daily as they went about their lives – for example, people who lived in Lesotho and worked in SA, who crossed the border every day to go to work and back.

Ms T Gasebonwe (ANC) asked if refugees could renew their permits at any DHA office, what the IT implications were, and the cost involved.

Mr Mmakau replied that the cost of documents would remain the same. The benefit would be for the applicant.  The security aspects had been improved and the turnaround time would be shorter.

Ms Gasebonwe asked what happened to the old equipment if equipment was replaced every two to three years.  Were they auctioned or sold?

The Chairperson asked whether the Department had a disposal policy for its redundant equipment.

Mr Mmakau replied that if one did not look after the equipment it was replacing, the Department could get a qualification from the AG. It had a policy on disposable assets. Some equipment was disposed of and some was auctioned off.

The Chairperson asked what would happen if a blank card fell into the wrong hands, because there were IT specialists outside of government.

Mr Mkhize said the card included multiple levels of security in its design.  Most of these needed special instruments to detect. Limited security features would be embedded on the blank card when it entered the country, but thereafter only the GPW would be able to embed information on the card. In future, no-one other than government would have access to the cards. There were measures in place to make sure the card was secure.

Mr Mmakau said if the card fell into the wrong hands, it was designed to have two mechanisms for authentication - fingerprint and pin. Everyone who had received card would have gone through the personalisation process, where a digital security certificate would have been issued by the PO. The cards in the wrong hands were useless.

The Chairperson said it was the Portfolio Committee (PC) which had put pressure on the Department to roll out modern IT systems in the DHA.

Mr Mkhize replied that the concept of modernisation was driven by the vision of the Department. The vision statement of the DHA was: “A safe, secure South Africa where all of its people are proud of, and value, their identity and citizenship.”  The DHA was the sole custodian of SA citizens’ identity. If it could not manage this identity in a modern, secure way, it would have a problem. The design was based on the premise that the DHA had to make sure that peoples’ identity was secured and that citizens had trust in the DHA to protect their identity from abuse.

He thanked the PC for driving the Department to this point, where it sought excellence in its IT systems. In the past, the DHA had not been vigilant enough. It used to appear before the PC and the PC challenged it on fraudulent marriages and ID documents. The implementation of these new technologies was aimed at eliminating those threats to the identity of the SA citizen.

As a result of what the DHA had done, Mr Mmakau, as DDG,  had the previous week received the accolade of being chosen as the Visionary CIO (Chief Information Officer)of the Year in the country, including both the private and public sectors.

The Chairperson congratulated Mr Mmakau on his achievement.

Ms Petersen-Maduna said the PC had been told that live capture would start in December and Smart Card issuing in January. She wanted this PC to be the first to be issued with Smart Cards.

Mr Mmakau replied that he thought it would only be fair if the roll-out of the Smart ID Card started with the PC. Members would then be able to promote it.

The Chairperson thanked the DHA for its good work. She hoped that service delivery to the people would improve. She was pleased that the Department had done away with consultants, as the President had instructed departments to do in his State of the Nation Address.

Adoption of the report on the Oversight Trip to KZN
Ms Mnisi asked that a recommendation be added to the recommendations, that cement blocks had to be erected at the border posts so that stolen cars could not just be driven through the border posts, as was happening currently.

The Chairperson said that when the PC had asked about this possibility, it had been told that it was the responsibility of either the Department of Defence or the Department of Public Works to put up barriers at the border posts. The PC would follow this up in the new year and liaise with the relevant department.

Mr De Freitas asked whether a mechanism could be created to follow up on the recommendations, so that it did not just remain on paper, but get implemented. Could the relevant officials be called to come and commit to the recommendations in Parliament?

The Chairperson said she would have to discuss this with the Chief Whip so that the report could be adopted by the National Assembly and these departments could implement the recommendations.  The PC would hear from the provincial managers only in the New Year as to how far the provinces had gone in terms of implementing the recommendations of the PC.  From Parliament, the recommendations would be forwarded to the Minister and the Minister then had to pass them on to his department for implementation.

The report was adopted with minor typographical corrections.

Requests for meetings with the Portfolio Committee
The PC received requests for meetings by a group representing the interests of Transgender People, as well as a group representing the interests of Stateless People. She thought it proper to meet with these groups before the next Parliamentary recess.

Committee Programme
The Chairperson said that the PC would meet with the abovementioned groups on the 26th November 2012, after which it would leave for its oversight visit to Matatiele and surrounding areas, including the port of entry in the Eastern Cape on the Monday, after the meeting.

The meeting was adjourned.