Sars IT problems will cost R1 billion to fix

I've never understood how these government IT projects snowball into such monumental amounts. Like how a city website can balloon into a R100m expense, or the new eNatis database cost R600m. Sure, I understand they' re doing things at scale with all the complexity and inertia around government systems, but still, you could literally hire a team comprising many hundreds of top analysts and devs to work around the clock for a few years at that expense. And if, for all that, all Gartner did was provide flawed advice, it is absolutely jaw droppingly inefficient compared to the kind of systems some private sector companies have developed for their internal systems at a tenth of the cost.
 
garp said:
I've never understood how these government IT projects snowball into such monumental amounts. Like how a city website can balloon into a R100m expense, or the new eNatis database cost R600m. Sure, I understand they' re doing things at scale with all the complexity and inertia around government systems, but still, you could literally hire a team comprising many hundreds of top analysts and devs to work around the clock for a few years at that expense. And if, for all that, all Gartner did was provide flawed advice, it is absolutely jaw droppingly inefficient compared to the kind of systems some private sector companies have developed for their internal systems at a tenth of the cost.
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They definitely aren't being done at scale though......

This is largely just over billing and many middle men taking their cut.
 
“Effectively because of the fact that our support functions are not helping the digital environment, infrastructure updates are far behind and its pointing towards the imminent collapse of digital infrastructure within Sars.
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Software and hardware are outdated. Hardware can cost a lot of money. How many sites does SARS have, how many servers/workstations at each site?
 
Another day. Another billion to be flushed down the great white porcelain express.
 
HeftyCrab said:
How on earth does it cost R1 Billion to "fix problems" in a system like that? Or is it more a case of like 10 years of technical debt catching up to them.

Surely it would be cheaper to re-write it from scratch?
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Myself and Hamster worked on the SARS system, its an extremely complex piece of work. But I believe the contract was pulled away from the company at the time, I had already resigned.
 
garp said:
I've never understood how these government IT projects snowball into such monumental amounts. Like how a city website can balloon into a R100m expense, or the new eNatis database cost R600m. Sure, I understand they' re doing things at scale with all the complexity and inertia around government systems,
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That isn't an excuse anymore IMO. Not with all the tools available.

garp said:
And if, for all that, all Gartner did was provide flawed advice, it is absolutely jaw droppingly inefficient compared to the kind of systems some private sector companies have developed for their internal systems at a tenth of the cost.
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That is because the private sector is dealing with money that is not obtained by the barrel of a gun. Government officials have precisely zero incentive to contain their costs.[/QUOTE]
 
Would it not be funny if efiling crashed - and nobody could file taxes and therefore not pay as don’t have a payment reference which won’t allow you to pay without one . Might teach them a lesson
 
Well, thats roughtly what I said for last 3 years, & links missing etc, but did not think for such a price. That brings us to the effect of The Digital Age on the worlds economies, and it never provides a selution that lasts long, is it Dammit or Dam It-?
 
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