Page 23 - Service Delivery Review_Volume 14_Number 3_2022

CGITCPF Case Study

Method/Intervention/Solutions

The CGICTPF intervention in the Public Service responded
directly to the concerns of the PRC and to those that the
AG had periodically raised. However, it is not the intention
to delve here into the details of the 2012 CGICTPF itself ex-
cept to note that its primary purpose is, as the document
said, “to institutionalise the Corporate Governance of and
Governance of ICT as an integral part of corporate govern-
ance within departments in a uniform and coordinated man-
ner”. Similarly, it is worth highlighting that the CGICTPF was
implemented in three distinct phases with clear annualised
deliverables.

Phase 1: Creating an enabling environment
As the Implementation Guidelines for the CGICTPF ex-
plained, Phase 1 was aimed at establishing the environment
for its implementation. Given the absence of corporate gov-
ernance of the ICT regime in the Public Service at the time,
this was a particularly important phase. Consequently, Year 1 Phase 3: Continuous Improvement
was foundational and required departments to focus on the
establishment of the various ICT governance structures and Lastly, Phase 3, year three and beyond, marked a period of
to formulate their respective policies and plans ahead of the consolidation, monitoring and evaluation as well as gather-
next phases. ing lessons learned to inform continuous improvement as
outlined by the CGICTPF:
Phase 2: Business and ICT Strategic Alignment
Year 2, or Phase 2, was premised on the existence of prop- The successful implementation of a Corporate Govern-
erly constituted corporate governance of ICT policies and ance of ICT system leads to continuous improvement in
committees to ensure that ICT strategies were aligned to the creation of business value. ICT service delivery must be
departments’ business strategies. To ensure that Phase 2 assessed to identify gaps between expected and realised
was workable three committees and their respective plans service delivery.
were to be constituted in Phase 1 of the implementation pro-
cess. These committees corresponded respectively to the Results Achieved
strategic, operational and tactical aspects of the governance
and management of departmental ICT resources. However, One of the positive developments a year after the depart-
Phase 2 is largely the domain of the structures and policies ment implemented the CGICTPF was the incorporation of
that dealt with strategic-level issues as per the Implementa- specific standards in the Management Performance Assess-
tion Guidelines for the 2012 CGICTPF : ment Tool (MPAT), which was managed by the Department
of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). This devel-
ICT alignment is articulated in an ICT Strategic Plan (in the opment made for systematic monitoring and evaluation of
context of this Guideline referred to as an ICT Plan) aligned the deliverables in each of the implementation phases of
with the MTEF and ICT Operational Plan absorbed in an ICT the ICT corporate governance policy framework. Developed
Annual Performance Plan (APP). Figure 5 below shows the 5 in consultation with GITOC, the final MPAT Governance and
year and annual planning and reporting cycles and how the Accountability Assessment Standard had five layers. The
departmental strategic plan is cascaded for implementation standard itself became the Key Performance Area, which
in an APP. Related to this cascade, it shows the ICT Plan got broken down to levels at which evidence was required
that is informed by the departmental strategic plan and cas- as part of departmental self-assessment. Another plus for
caded into the MTEF and APP for implementation. monitoring and evaluation was that the AG appropriated the
Governance and Accountability Standard for auditing the
ICT function of departments, albeit from a risk perspective.

Volume 14 No.3 of 2022 | SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW 23