Question NW3328 to the Minister of Public Service and Administration

Reply:

Background

In pursuit of a comprehensive understanding of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) landscape within the public service, the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) utilized the PERSAL system to generate reports concerning ICT personnel within various departments. Regrettably, these reports revealed discrepancies, as many departments had failed to update the field designating personnel involved in IT-related roles, consequently compromising the accuracy of the reports.

Subsequently, the DPSA formulated a data collection instrument, mandating all departments to provide the following particulars regarding their respective ICT personnel:

• Department or Government Component Name
• Sphere of Government (National/Provincial)
• Province
• PERSAL Number
• Full Name
• Branch
• Chief Directorate
• Directorate or Unit
• Job Title
• Salary Level
• A concise summary of the job description

It's noteworthy that this data collection initiative did not aim to ascertain specific ICT skills; nonetheless, through a meticulous analysis of the data received, the DPSA managed to infer a rudimentary skill level based on the roles that were being undertaken. It is imperative to highlight that a more comprehensive collection of skills information will be undertaken as part of the broader public service skills audit initiatives currently in progress.

Of the anticipated 161 departments, 132 provided responses, revealing a salient opportunity for departments to enhance the quality of their human resources data, particularly in relation to personnel information, job descriptions, and job titles.

(1) The data was categorized into various job categories, with "System Developers" constituting a comprehensive category encompassing diverse types of developers. In the contemporary ICT landscape, the majority of systems developed are web-enabled or online, which poses challenges in distinguishing between a general developer and a specialized web developer.

However, from the job descriptions we are able to identify that there are 34 recorded Web developers in the public service distributed as follows:

(2)The total number of programme developers or “System Developers” in the Public Service is 310, distributed as follows:

The full list per department is attached as Annexure A

(3) The current financial system ICT Standard Chart of Accounts (SCOA) codes do not support the breakdown of the expenditure to programmers and developers; however, the DPSA, as part of the Annual Operational Plan(AoP) for 2023-2024 is reviewing the ICT SCOA codes to improve reporting on ICT items.

However, as part of ICT expenditure reviews, the DPSA has created a category called Systems Development and Operations, defined as any service procured to develop or maintain any IT system. The breakdown of expenditure in this category is as follows:

• 2019-2020 = R4.8 billion
• 2020-2021 – R 6 billion
• 2021-2022 – R 6.7 billion
• 2022-2023 – review not yet completed

End