System Support

System Support

System Support is one of the divisions of the Office of Accountant General (OAG) and responsible for provision of support services for the systems implemented by the Office. Providing IT support and guidance in implementation of new systems are also the responsibilities of the division.

The section is comprised of about 70 officers and responsible for providing support to various Ministries, Departments and internal customers. Total number of users for all the systems now is in excess of 15000.

2. Mandate

·         Provided information technology guidance to the Office.

·         Maintain and support the GABS, GPPPS, SWIMS, IFAR and other systems.

·         Provide all information technology support to the Office.

·         Maintenance, support and rollout of the systems to all Government offices.

·         Develop procedures/processes and ensure efficiency and integrity with particular attention to support service on the development of existing computer systems.

·         Design, recommend and ensure standards on system management, IT procurement, application design and data sharing.

·         Identify ways of exploiting ICT to find solutions to business, organizational and technical problems within the Office of the Accountant General.

·         Monitor expenditure and ensure compliance with commitments as per budget allocations.

·         Maintain service level agreements where IT services are outsourced.

3. Operational Systems:

 

• The System Support division supports all the systems of Office of the Accountant General. These systems are implemented on Oracle E-Business Suite and utilize Oracle Financials (General Ledger, Payables, Receivables, Public Sector Budgeting, Oracle Public Sector Financials (I), Cash Management, and some Custom Developments), Inventory, Purchasing and Asset Management modules.

1.      Revenue, Banking and Payroll Support team: This team supports 33 Revenue offices across the country and Regional Treasury offices. The team is also responsible for all Banking functions and Government Payroll, Pensions and Passages System.

2.      SWIMS support team: The team is solely responsible for support and training for SWIMS.

3.      IFAR support team: The team is solely responsible for support and training for IFAR.

4.      Budget Support team: The primary function of the Budget Support team is to provide Functional and Technical support, guidance, and training to all users in the Budget Administration Module which entails Development and Recurrent Budget, Cash Flow Module, and Public Debt Service Module.

A.   Technical Team

The Technical Support team is comprised of officers from the Office of the Accountant General, Department of Information Technology and Consultants. The team is responsible to resolve all technical issues of the systems that are escalated to the team by the competency teams.

The Service Desk for the System Support also falls within the Technical Team.

B.    IT Unit

OAG IT Unit is currently has offices in:

1.      OAG Headquarters

2.      Procurement Office Head Quarters

3.      Regional office in Francistown

4.      Palapye Revenue

5.      Maun Revenue

The mandate of the IT unit is:

·         Provision of user and ICT equipment support on daily basis.

·         Maintain network and computer systems and ensure that IT infrastructure is operating correctly.

 

·         Apply software patches and upgrades and antivirus deployed in computers

1. Government Accounting and Budgeting System (GABS): GABS provides an integrated set of business solutions that allow GOB to manage budgets, record revenue collection and expenditure, and control spending. It also provides on-line information for decision making. GABS went live starting with a few selected Ministries/Departments in August 2004, subsequently it has been rolled out to all Ministries/Departments in Gaborone and other Towns/Villages depending on the availability of the network and the IT readiness of the concerned ministry/department.
2. Government Payroll Pensions and Passages System (GPPPS): The GPPPS has been implemented in September 2004 with +-100,000 employees on its database. Currently the system manages payroll for about 115,000 employees which is likely to increase in future.
3. Supplies Warehousing and Management System (SWIMS): This system deals with the management of inventory items. The system was piloted in 2009 at Department of Water Affairs and rolled out to some major warehoused in subsequent years. It is currently being rolled out all Ministries and departments.
4. Integrated Fixed Asset Register (IFAR): Integrated Fixed Asset Register (IFAR) was implemented in 2013. The system is used to manage financial information of all government Fixed Assets. It enables the addition, transfer, adjustment and retirement of assets. The system is currently being rolled out to all Ministries and Departments.

3. System Support Teams

The division carries its operation through a number of competency teams that cater for all support requirements:

A.   Competency Teams

 

1.      Ministry Support team: This team is responsible for the provision of functional support to all users of the Votes Ledger Module (VL) of the Government Accounting and Budgeting System (GABS).

·         Educating end-users on computer uses.

·         Monitor network performance and ensure network availability.

·         Managing Active Directory functions which include creation, deletion, maintenance, and assignments of rights to users, groups, and enable file sharing

·         Monitor and ensure e-mail availability

 

Take care of the Department inventory of all hardware (computers, switch, router, UPS, etc.) which helps in drawing up the departmental budget, replacement and disposal plan.