File
The Eastern Cape Government has scrapped its provincial ICT strategy after it emerged that most of the document previously adopted, had been plagiarised.
The Provincial Executive Council has ordered that a new ICT strategy be drafted and those responsible for the plagiarism face disciplinary action.
The only part of the document that was not plagiarised was the implementation plan, projects to be implemented and location of the projects to be implemented as part of the strategy.
According to a statement on Friday, when the matter was brought to the Premier’s attention he ordered an investigation.
“When plagiarism was confirmed by the investigation, at the instruction of Premier Mabuyane, the strategy document was withdrawn from all government institutions where it was submitted as required by the operational and reporting systems of government,” the statement said.
“The Executive Council has directed that a new ICT strategy of the provincial government be developed with proper guidance and attention to the processes, contents of the document and teams that work on the strategy to avoid a repeat of this embarrassing situation.”
Bhisho said that disciplinary action would be taken against individuals who plagiarised the document as it was an indication of misconduct.
“Systems are being explored by the Office of the Premier to make it easy to pick up plagiarised documents,” the statement concluded.
