From Centralisation to Regulated Contestability: A Multivocal Policy Synthesis of Adaptive ICT Procurement Governance for the State Information Technology Agency in South Africa

Public-sector information and communication technology (ICT) procurement must balance the coordination benefits of central governance with the need for operational responsiveness. Existing approaches, however, often frame this challenge as a choice between centralisation and decentralisation. This study explores issues in ICT procurement governance and attempts to reconcile competing interests within the context of SITA. Analysis of a multivocal literature review produced an overall picture of evidence from 19 sources, comprising 9 peer-reviewed studies and 10 grey literature articles, through descriptive thematic synthesis and theory-informed analysis. The tension implies an interrelation between coordination and dependency, where the coordinated process generates value through standardisation, interoperability, cybersecurity coordination, demand pooling, and common infrastructure, while also creating implementation dependencies, lags, and capabilities. The results of the procurement process were determined not only by institutional arrangements but also by the distribution of power, information, capacity, and regulation. The research contributes to the development of Regulated Contestability as a new theory-driven and synthesised model of governance. This model retains the essential aspects of central technical governance and accountability while making the authority to execute transactions contingent on certain conditions. Therefore, the new model makes the ICT procurement process in the public sector a governance problem of the distribution of responsibilities, rather than a problem of either centralisation or decentralisation.