The KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Finance Ministry controls an annual budget of R50 billion. When just one percent of this budget is lost to fraud, it results in a significant R500 million of taxpayers’ money lost per year. This, coupled with the escalation of computer-related crimes across the public and private sectors, made it necessary for the KZN treasury to take more stringent preventative measures in avoiding fraud.

Together with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the KZN provincial treasury has implemented a Biometric Access Control System that is intended to save the government millions of rand by curtailing fraud and corruption within the provincial administration. The project seeks to combat cyber-attacks on the information technology systems that government uses to manage its resources. KZN is the first province in the country to implement this system. There is, however, a business case for the system to be replicated throughout all provinces, national departments and local municipalities.