eNatis project manager promoted

J

JayT

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
505
Reaction score
0
Location
Cape Town
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2118965,00.html

eNatis project manager promoted
25/05/2007 09:17 - (SA)


Cobus Coetzee, Beeld

Johannesburg - The project manager of eNatis was promoted recently, in spite of a report by the Auditor-General (AG), who found he was not qualified to take key technical decisions in the eNatis project.

Werner Koekemoer was appointed director of traffic information systems in the national Department of Transport on April 1, barely two months after the damning report was handed to the department by the AG.

Beeld has a copy of the final report by the AG, stating that Koekemoer and two other highly placed people in the department had taken decisions that impacted on the technical, operational structure of eNatis.

The two other people named by the AG were Wendy Watson, former chief director of land transport regulation, and Jerry Mokokoena, former operational chief of the department.

Watson left the department shortly after the preliminary AG report appeared in December, while Mokokoena resigned a few days after the report had been handed to the department on February 2.

Koekemoer, Watson and Mokokoena comprised the group that took decisions on the eNatis project - the group which according to the AG report did not have the competence or qualifications to do so.

'Enormous influence'

"The project manager (Koekemoer) fulfilled many tasks, such as financial manager, software development regulator, and mediator between the department and Tasima (the consortium that developed eNatis) which gave him enormous influence," the report said.

The AG also said that neither of the two permanent officials appointed by the department to work on eNatis had the required theoretical qualifications.

Before his appointment as a director, Koekemoer was the assistant director tasked with eNatis.

Koekemoer phoned Beeld on Thursday to find out how the newspaper had acquired a copy of the AG's report.

He confirmed that he had been appointed to the new position and said he was just concerned about what Beeld would publish.

"I hope you do not publish anything that will undermine the security of the system," he said. Koekemoer denied that he had seen a copy of the report.

Unauthorised changes

According to the AG, various unauthorised changes had been made at the start of the eNatis project by various unqualified staff members in the department.

This had led to some serious consequences:

# Over-expenditure of more than R25m, R15.5m of which was on the Oracle licence and R10m for the construction of the eNatis office and computer centre at Midrand.

# Extension of a tender contract, which cost taxpayers an additional R90m.

# Revision of benchmarks, which led to the eNatis project being delayed.

The report emphasised that over-expenditure on eNatis topped out at R117.6m, or 28% more than the original estimate.

The AG ascribed the overspending to unauthorised and inadequate project management, staff exceeding their powers and inaccurate data having been given to tendering parties, during the tender process.

Neither Jeff Radebe's spokesperson, Collen Msibi, nor the departmental spokesperson, Sam Monareng could state after a full week of enquiries why Koekemoer, Watson and Mokokoena had been appointed to their posts, or what their qualifications were.

Koekemoer, Watson and Mokokoena could also not be reached for comment on Thursday evening.
Click to expand...
 
Who says incompetence isn't rewarded.
 
The project manager of eNatis was promoted recently, in spite of a report by the Auditor-General (AG), who found he was not qualified to take key technical decisions in the eNatis project.

Werner Koekemoer was appointed director of traffic information systems in the national Department of Transport on April 1, barely two months after the damning report was handed to the department by the AG.
Click to expand...

speechless. :eek:

ENatis
Eish Not Available Today I'm Sorry.
 
There was a saying in the corporate world (a few years ago) that somebody gets promoted to their level of incompetence - the greater the incompetence the higher the level (or something like that)
 
This email did the rounds yesterday, maybe it pays to contribute towards Africa Day.

Today is “Africa Day”.
Please contribute by making a complete *****p of something extremely simple.
 
Promote someone out of your department, so you can get someone better to replace them.
 
Nothing new here. The poms used to call it "being Stellenbosched" or being promoted to a position where they can do less damage.
 
As one who's involved in projects for you-know-who all I can say is that it's never as simple as blaming one or two people. There is massive interference in projects of this nature and those heavy weights doing the interference never get to face the rap. I actually have a bit of simpathy for those being named here as I can well imagine what happened behind the scenes over time that cannot be revealed in public in their defence.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X