Work under way on 'Who am I'

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 20 Mar 2008

A GijimaAst-led consortium has started work on the Department of Home Affairs' R2 billion IT implementation known as "Who am I online (I am I said)" - despite no signed contract being in place.

The consortium, which also includes Siemens, was awarded the deal in late October.

A company insider has confirmed that work is under way - and that it is not yet clear when the deal will be inked.

A GijimaAst official in January said the signing ceremony would be in February and closer to the time it was suggested this would occur on Valentine's Day - but CEO Jonas Bogoshi denied this upon inquiry.

President Thabo Mbeki has made "fixing" the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) one of his 24 "apex priorities" for the year.

Addressing Parliament last month, he said: "...recognising that the Department of Home Affairs touches the core of every citizen's life, we will this year intensify the implementation of the turn-around strategy approved by Cabinet. This includes improving the IT systems, training of staff on the new systems, rooting out corrupt elements and piloting the new ID card."

According to another source within the consortium, "Phase Zero" of the project was scheduled for completion by the end of last month. This phase entails the finalisation of the user requirement and architecture.

What is 'Who am I online'?

"Who am I online" has been described as an attempt to wrest back Home Affairs from overly-entrepreneurial officials and criminal gangs. These fraudsters have flooded the market with real, but illegally issued passports, identity documents, and a plethora of other certificates, permits, visas and other sought-after papers.

It is also a determined drive to fast-forward one of the most technologically backward government departments into the information age and turn piles of inert data into an easy-to-access national asset.

"Home Affairs is the custodian of identity and citizenship. In the modern world it is increasingly critical that identity be databased and that it can be verified," the DHA's acting chief director of civic services, Vusi Mkhize, told ITWeb last year.

He added that the war on crime - particularly the combating of identity theft or evasion and fraud - requires the department to assist other entities to verify that identity documents are valid and that people are who they claim they are.

The theory is simple and the technology is available - and has been for some time. But inertia and a decade of standoff between Msimang's political-appointee predecessors and Inkatha Freedom Party leader - and Home Affairs minister - Mangosuthu Buthelezi kept ICT a low priority.

Timelines

Although work has started without a final contract, the project - supposed to be a critical part of government's 2010-preparations - is running late. Last October, when the State IT Agency (SITA) awarded the work, the tender was already 16 months behind schedule.

According to the SITA "invitation to bid", the original plan was to have the vendor on-site by 1 July 2006 and roll-out was scheduled to be complete by 31 March 2009 - a year from now.

The idea was that "Who am I?" would be in place for the expected tourist inflow in June next year for the Federation of International Football Associations' Confederations Cup.

What Home Affairs wants

The "Who am I online" tender document describes the expected outcome as an enterprise-wide services-oriented open standards, open source architecture with Web-based applications, business process management and business intelligence tools as well as crook-proof security - particularly against internal threats - and full auditibility.

SITA's "invitation to bid" states the project is about the "design, supply, installation and maintenance of an integrated core system based on the general live capture concept (GLCC), consisting of the required integrated core business application; a graphical management information tool (GMIT); and a set of integrated client services consoles (ICSC) for the DHA front-offices locally and internationally."

While not yet finalised, the deal should see Home Affairs buy some of the required hardware and lease the rest. The bid documents suggest the department will lease the GLCC, all seven ICSC types and the GMIT for five years inclusive of maintenance, while buying the custom-built integrated core business application, subject to a five-year maintenance deal with the option to renew for a further two years.

This will give a variety of users access to Home Affairs' key data, the National Population Register (NPR) and the Home Affairs National Identification System, Hanis. The NPR is the central repository of identity data, while Hanis is a verification system allowing individuals to prove their identity - and Home Affairs to confirm people are who they say they are.