Adapt-IT has finally come out in defence of the controversial Durban 2010 Web site, but questions over the budget, technology choices and the bid process still remain.
Despite criticism from the IT community that the project should have cost a fraction of the budget, Sbu Shabalala, CEO of Adapt-IT, says R6.5 million is a “sound investment”.
While the company owns the strategy for the project, developed the Web site and advised the Durban municipality on the project, it says it cannot shoulder all responsibility for the R6.5 million allocation by the city.
“The figure of R6.5 million came from eThekwini municipality. Remember they have to budget for the full project. And the full project involves hosting. The second is obviously that this must run on hardware. They procure hardware; they've got preference type vendor relationships,” he explains.
The company, which remained mum on the project following widespread criticism of the costly initiative in June, said it had to clarify its position and scope and why this project is necessary.
There has been speculation that Shabalala is related to a senior financial executive at the municipality, but ITWeb has been unable to confirm this.
Durban city councillor, Warwick Chapman, says the silence of the Durban municipality still puts some doubt on the project. The municipality remains mum on the project and has not responded to questions posed to it by ITWeb.
“The first time any meaningful insight into the scope and scale of the Web site development has been provided is now, through the Adapt-IT media release pack and not via the city. Why is it that the city has not laid out all the cards and provided open access to the information relating to this development?” he asks.
Chapman has called on the municipality to make public the technical report, which justifies, objectively, the choice to switch platforms; the project plan for the entire portal development from stage one through stage three and onward; and the breakdown of tenders, contractors and service providers involved in the project and the scope of work and/or services provided by each.
Rushed process
Shabalala notes that some decisions were informed by the limited time the company had to complete the first phase of the project. The city gave Adapt-IT four months to complete its information portal.
Adapt-IT says it has 10 full-time staff working on the project for 14 months. The contractors would be paid IT contracting rates as set out by the State IT Agency over 14 months. Internet Solutions (IS) is hosting the Web site and this relationship has nothing to do with Adapt-IT, Shabalala says.
Shabalala distances himself from several processes of the project, saying the municipality procured hardware for the project through preferred suppliers and this was “negotiated within their budget”.
He adds that hosting services, which would be done by IS, were concluded exclusively between the municipality and IS.
Open source
Shabalala says the company's search was not limited to proprietary software and that open source software options were also considered.
Despite settling on more expensive Microsoft technologies, this decision did not mark a shift away from government policy on open source software, he adds.
“It is not a policy shift. It is merely a technology decision, to move to open standards. Microsoft supports open standards [and] that is why we can now integrate with Sharepoint,” notes Shabalala.
Chapman previously stated the current Durban Web site - www.durban.gov.za - operates on the open Plone platform and its investment of R8.1 million in this site should be extended to the 2010 site. Shabalala disagrees. He says a combination of complementary software is being deployed based on their strengths, functionality and value for money.
“The shift that Durban is making is from only using open source to moving to open standards. All we are doing is extending the platform to open standards. This investment we made is not lost because it's all interoperable. Going forward, you can grow this, but this is for rapid development.”
Tender questions
Chapman has also questioned the tender processes and budget allocation. He has said the lack of transparency on this matter by the city warranted an investigation into the legalities of the awarding of this project.
“The responses relating to tender procedures and budget allocation do nothing more than highlight the need for answers as to how this large sum could be awarded without following the normal procedures,” he says.
Adapt-IT has a long-standing relationship with the Durban municipality. The company currently provides intranet and extranet solutions to the municipality.
While the city has provided no information on the tender process, it appears there was no bid. Adapt-IT motivated and presented a proof of concept for the 2010 Fifa World Cup portal, which earned it the go-ahead to develop it.
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