During April 1997 the then Department of State Expenditure launched the development of a new management information system which was to be known as Vulindlela. The Project was tasked with the responsibility of consolidating the various data sources to meet the government's information needs. Data is extracted from the various operational sources into the information database to ensure optimal decision- making.
Vulindlela consolidates financial information from the many different government departments and public entities in order to help government managers achieve their budgetary and human resource objectives.
The problem was to integrate data scattered across an enormous number of legacy transaction systems covering finance, personnel, logistics and procurement and the paymaster general's functions. Data is extracted from these various sources and then populated into the Information Database, during which it is transformed and then integrated into meaningful information that can be used as a basis for sound and informed decision making for government.
The financial information that has to be provided is also prescribed by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Vulindlela applications help make the whole process of abiding by the standards outlined and recommended by the PFMA easy to do. For one, the PFMA requires the Accounting Officers to manage expenditure and submit monthly and quarterly reports. The Act confers the responsibility of ensuring that the departments do not overspend their budgets on the Accounting Officers.
Hence it is quite crucial for government to have a total picture of money that it is to spend and it has already spent. Government has a desire to identify and monitor the impact of its own policy and the need to keep track of expenditure pattern within the public service.