Mention IT in the public sector to anyone who’s in the business and they will immediately think of glacial payment cycles, frustrations dealing with Sita and the endless struggle to align their organisations with government’s needs. What’s not normally mentioned is skills. But government needs IT skills, and soon.

The Minister for Performance Management, Monitoring and Evaluation has made it clear that government departments are going to have to implement outcomes-based management and that they will be measured on their performance. That will require not only considerable help from the private sector, but also a depth of in-house skills that government doesn’t have. It tried in 2006 to create a giant pool of talent with the Integrated Financial Management System but, as Emma Murray, country manager for Software AG notes, the project has fizzled.