Review of IT Governance Frameworks Implementation in the Context of the South African Public Sector

Abstract

Public sector organisations are faced with the ethical demand to provide value, be transparent and accountable which however is the reverse for most public sector organisations. Over the years there has been attention on corporate governance and the focus of interest has been IT governance, with the crafting of IT governance frameworks such as the COSO, COBIT and ITIL etc. to help organisations to implement effective IT governance framework. This research focuses on how IT governance is adopted in the public sector, what factors affect the implementation of IT governance in the public sector and the implementation tools available. A desk research method was used for the vast amount of data to review how organisations are faring in the implementation of IT governance frameworks. The research was a qualitative research. The research findings reflect that there are challenges in implementing IT governance in most public sector organisations because of factors ranging from weak corporate governance, financial constraints, lack of interest and innovation, large size of most of the public sector organisations, making the control structure too broad for the Boards, and political reasons. Most public sector organisations are within the ad-hoc and fragmented maturity levels of IT Governance. The researcher recommends further research on the failure to enforce and make compulsory the implementation of IT governance in public sector.