Overview
- The Public Service Commission’s final probe, released on Monday, documented more than R2 billion in irregular expenditure across four audited years and widespread governance, procurement and leadership failures at the State Information Technology Agency (SITA).
- Investigators found deep procurement dysfunction: one in four tenders reviewed produced no award, a 25.2% attrition rate among 1,443 concluded matters, and 529 procurement files stuck in the pipeline with some averaging more than 400 days to resolve.
- The PSC flagged chronic leadership instability with a high share of acting senior roles and inconsistent consequence management that left officials weakly held to account for procurement and financial irregularities.
- Employee surveys showed almost no trust in whistleblower protection or grievance handling, and investigators warned that fragmented reporting channels have reduced visibility of misconduct and harmed organisational learning.
- The government has mandated quarterly governance‑health reporting and independent validation of reforms while departments that rely on SITA for vital systems face continued service risks and may seek bypasses or alternatives if recovery stalls.