Warwick Bruce Chapman

ITWeb has covered this here: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2009/0908141100.asp

My Questions on behalf of the Democtratic Alliance:

I tabled the following questions in terms of Section 17 of the Rules of Order at the 30 July Council Meeting:

1. Was there a tender process entered into for the preparation of the new website?
2. From which budget allocation was the funding for the new website sourced?
3. Was the cost of R6.5 million made known to the relevant Council Committees prior to the launch and the resultant media exposure?
4. How much money has been invested in the existing www.durban.gov.za website and platform since it was deployed on the open source Plone system?
5. Why did the City decide to develop the new website using expensive Microsoft technologies instead of sticking with the existing open source, standards compliant platform?

Answers from the City:

Councillor Fawzia Peer (ANC), in her capacity as Chief Whip provided the following respective responses:

1. Yes, in May 2008 the Municipality advertised for the appointment of a panel of consultants to assist the information services section to deliver on its various projects. From this panel, a quote system was used to obtain services for various projects, including the preparation of a new website.
2. 2010 IT budget.
3. IT budgets for 2010 were confirmed very late, due to late clarification from the LOC and FIFA companies as to what the Municipality is expected to fund for 2010 IT Projects and 08/09 year this budget was R7.5 million.
4. Budgeted figures are:

06/07 – R2.7 million;
07/08 – R2.7 million;
08/09 – R2.7 million.

5. We needed a very dynamic and robust website that would:

● Allow citizens and visitors alike to have an exciting experience when visiting the website,
● For the website to stand out from the rest and
● Cater for the volumes of people visiting the website.
● Ensure we don’t end up with the difficulties experienced during the re-evaluation process.

My thoughts

I am concerned that question 1’s answer suggests due process was not followed but am not familiar enough about what the process is, especially considering answer to question 2. and 3.? I will be finding out about this.

Answer to question 4. shows that deploying and managing the Plone-based current website for the past 3 years has cost R8.1m – only R1.6m more than the budgeted cost to build the new site.

Answer to question 5. is totally avoiding the question and the policy requirements.