4.1.3.1 The Committee was satisfied with the measures taken by the Ministry to address the audit finding. It however recommended that Internal Auditors involved in the change process should not be the ones to carry out the audit in the areas they were involved in as that would amount to self-review.
4.1.4 Failure by the Central Computing Service to maintain the 98% system availability as stated in the Ministry’s Departmental Integrated Performance Agreement (DIPA)
System availability is the probability that a system will work and as required when required to perform the intended tasks and activity. System monitoring entails periodical assessment of security, information threats, vulnerabilities and communicating the security logs (audit trails) for continuous process improvements. According to the Ministry’s DIPA, the system should be functional 98% of the System uptime. The audit observed that the Central Computing Services had not been able to maintain the stipulated uptime for the System. Furthermore, the licence for the Solarwinds Network Monitoring Tool (for monitoring network availability) had expired and hence the tool was not functional at the time of audit. The risk associated with this finding is that the network problems may go undetected if the network is not being reviewed.
The Accountant General acknowledged that at the time of Audit, system availability was below the 98% target but currently the target was reportedly being maintained and the Solarwinds Network Monitoring Tool was up and running. He added that during times when the Solarwinds System is not functional, they still make use of the bandwidth monitor and PFMS application tools to monitor system availability. When there are connectivity issues for critical payment transaction, Ministries would go to the nearest connectivity point to effect payments. For revenue, they resort to manual receipting and subsequently capture the data when connectivity is available. The Ministry had also opened provincial offices in Bulawayo, Masvingo, Gweru and Mutare to provide technical support to provincial users. The Committee observed that adequate measures had been taken to address the observation.
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