FDA holds South Africa to ransom, threatens to ‘collapse criminal justice system’ – Which is Why Open Source Software Should be Encouraged!
On Wednesday, Keith Keating, director of Forensic Data Analysts and the man at the centre of two massive investigations into alleged procurement irregularities involving SAPS and SITA, threatened to “collapse the criminal justice system” in South Africa unless he was paid by midnight. In February Scopa ordered SITA to cancel its contracts with FDA. A week ago IPID too recommended that SAPS terminate all contracts with Keating’s company. So far no one has been able to explain how one man, a former cop, has been allowed to act as a sole supplier for these “mission critical” systems.
This is just one scenario that is happening but imagine also a cloud-based document service where government (due to governance and bureaucracy) does not renew their cloud subscription on time and is held ransom to pay before they can access or edit critical documents.
More reasons why governments especially should consider using open data standards (to exchange data) and open source software (no vendor lock-in or mandatory subscription fees). Apart from prevention of being held ransom, open source allows many vendors to bid for support which makes pricing more competitive and usually also results in the money being spent 100% locally.
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SAPS/SITA capture: FDA holds South Africa to ransom, threatens to ‘collapse criminal justice system’ | Daily Maverick On Wednesday, Keith Keating, director of Forensic Data Analysts and the man at the centre of two massive investigations into alleged procurement irregularities involving SAPS and SITA, threatened to “collapse the criminal justice system” in South Africa unless he was paid by midnight. In February Scopa ordered SITA to cancel its contracts with FDA. A week ago IPID too recommended that SAPS terminate all contracts with Keating’s company. So far no… |