Clash over IT services at NUL

MASERU – THE National University of Lesotho (NUL) ICT director, Dr Lehlohonolo Mohasi, and Vice-Chancellor Professor Isaac Fajana are at each other’s throats over the duplication of ICT services.

Mohasi, in a leaked email to the university’s senior staff and the vice-chancellor, complains about two ICT companies providing similar services.
The services are provided by Integrated Tertiary Software (ITS) and Fedena.

Mohasi complains that the ITS had been working perfectly but the vice-chancellor decided to engage Fedena despite the university staff advising him otherwise.
The two companies are running, among others, online applications and admissions for the university.

“The matter has not been clearly stated out not only to the ICT Department, but also to the NUL staff as the department has been receiving endless questions regarding the two systems,” Mohasi’s email reads.

“This matter is brought on by the ongoing confusion between the two systems used by the NUL – ITS and Fedena – and misrepresentation of the ICT Department at SMT (senior management team) meetings,” he said.

He said the confusion “has cascaded to the NUL community at large”.
This follows late last year’s demonstration by the NUL staff who petitioned the vice-chancellor to address the issue of students whose admission had been revoked on allegations that they had been erroneously admitted.

The staff said Professor Fajana had “a skewed understanding of university processes by proclaiming to the Congregation that a person’s admission to the university is forever provisional (and) can be revoked even after graduation”.

They complain that the students were expelled from the university when they demonstrated against failures and mismanagement of admissions and registration, “caused by a malfunctioning Information System called FEDENA”.

They also said “the teaching and learning at NUL has been severely impaired and continues to suffer”.
They accused Professor Fajana of covering up for Fedena and unfoundedly blaming its failures on what he calls negative attitude and resistance by staff.

Mohasi’s email says despite the efforts put in by the ICT Department to address online applications challenges on the ITS system, which he says has been successfully accomplished, “the information given to the SMT (senior management team) has not been accurate”.

“This renders the department’s efforts (futile),” he said.

He said the readiness of the ITS system to run online applications was brought to Professor Fajana’s attention in February, through a demonstration to his office and via email.
This was followed by another demonstration to the senior management team in March.

He said during the senior management team’s meeting on April 12, Professor Fajana said the online admissions would be done by Fedena because “the ITS system was not ready”.
Mohasi said the ITS “has been ready to carry out both online applications and admissions”.

“Given the aforementioned, there is clearly confusion and no set line on which system will perform which activities,” he said.

“The matter has not been clearly stated out not only to the ICT Department, but also to the NUL staff as the department has been receiving endless questions regarding the two systems.”

Mohasi requested Professor Fajana to clarify the services offered by the ITS system versus Fedena.

“So far we see duplication as the two systems are performing the same services, which is a waste of not only efforts by the teams doing the jobs, it is costly to the university financially and time-wise,” he said.

He also sought clarity on Fedena’s role.
He said the ICT Department does not know the procurement process around Fedena, saying the IT governance was not followed.

“This makes it difficult for us to understand and follow issues regarding Fedena,” he said.

He also asked Professor Fajana to shed light on the payment for services rendered by the two companies and their contract agreements.
He said if the two systems are to be used concurrently there has to be a “change of terms of contracts”.

He also said there should be “negotiation of better rates, and we will need bursary/procurement assistance”.
Mohasi also said there should be a reduction in the service level.

He said because of the duplication of the manpower and additional system “overall responses are going to be slower than usual”.

“The ICT Department is understaffed as is, and performing odd and uneconomical jobs leads to inefficiency and loss of morale.”
Efforts to reach the NUL registrar for comment were unsuccessful at the time of going to print yesterday.

The university’s Director of Communications, ’Mamosa Moteetee, however, said the public should not be confused because registrations and admissions will continue running smoothly.
Moteetee said Professor Fajana directed the executive management to pay Fedena which the university had not done for two years.

Majara Molupe