Political corporate governance of ICT: Essential for national service delivery and security

In any developing country, delivering of proper services to the people of the country, on a national level by the incumbent Government, is crucial to the social and economic development and stability and security of the country. A sound ICT system is essential to achieve this. This PhD project investigated the Political Corporate Governance of ICT (PCGICT) in South Africa (SA) and identified how the lack of such political governance and accountability for ICT is core to the problems with service delivery, fraud and corruption in SA. The identified weaknesses of the present system of PCGICT and the relation with bad service delivery was informed by several strategic reports and audits, amongst others by the Auditor-General of SA (AGSA). Using international best practices for ICT, some strategic planning documents created by the Government itself and the identified weaknesses as drivers, a new model and structure for PCGICT in SA was created. It was shown how the new structure, which consolidated many dysfunctional and disjoint existing ICT governance mechanisms into a sound structure with clear accountabilities, addressed most, if not all of the problems identified by the AGSA. The proposed model is also much more in line with the outcomes of Government plans over many years, which were never implemented. The proposed model clearly highlights the importance for Political Corporate Governance of ICT in a developing country to really leverage the benefits of ICT for the country as a whole.One core component of the proposed model, which was escalated right up to the highest level of Government, is the accountability from the highest level of the political structures for Information and Cyber Security (ICSec). In the proposed model, accountability for ICSec was consolidated and escalated right to the top of the Government structure. This ensures that national security of the country will surely be improved and will therefore realise strategic benefits for SA.