Failures kept from deputies as IT projects floundered

Politicians were kept in the dark about the failing MyGov and Revenue Service IT projects.

Deputy Lindsay de Sausmarez has revealed States Members weren’t kept aware of the true situation, despite the island investing millions of pounds in the two work streams.

As Policy and Resources President she is now responsible for the delivery of such upgrades, but she today told the States that recent work to try and find out how the two projects have failed have revealed some other information.

She told the States that “appropriate financial controls had been set” for the MyGov project but “they were not always effective because they were frequently not followed”.

She said “external suppliers failed to meet agreed deliverables, and there was no sufficiently robust mechanism to ensure that they did”.

“Concerns raised about the project were not addressed adequately or in a timely manner,” she added, and she said that “there was a significant disparity between how the project’s status was reported (including to politicians) and the reality of its progress”.

Deputy de Sausmarez’s statement today follows one given by Deputy Gavin St Pier at the end of November last year.

He had revealed that £42million was effectively wasted on the MyGov and Revenue Service projects because neither had delivered the upgrades expected.

Over the past couple of months, the States’ Chief Executive Boley Smillie has been investigating what happened, and Deputy de Sausmarez said his work looking at the MyGov project had led to the conclusions detailed above.

“To ensure that this work continues thoroughly and swiftly, the Chief Executive has redirected the work programme of the Internal Audit team to focus fully on this investigation as well as seconding additional assistance,” she said today.

“I wish to be clear: this Committee is absolutely determined to establish a comprehensive understanding of how this project was allowed to proceed as it did, and where accountability properly lies.

“This work is being undertaken to ensure that lessons are not just identified, but more importantly acted upon, so that similar failures are not repeated, and accountability is ensured.

“We are also committed to being open with this Assembly and the public about the outcomes of the investigation.

“Every word of this commitment applies equally to the other projects and areas that we are investigating.

“Members will be kept informed of the findings and of the actions that follow, so that confidence can be restored in how major programmes are governed, monitored and reported.”

Regarding the Revenue Service transformation programme, Deputy de Sausmarez said today that it is “another that the Committee is reviewing”.

A new Director of the Revenue Service Operations took up her role in November and Deputy de Sausmarez said she is “making strong progress in developing a clear and definitive plan to – once and for all – address the issues of which the community is only too well aware”.

“The Committee will receive regular updates on progress which will be shared with the Committee for Employment & Social Security (given its link to contributions), this Assembly and the public, whom we are keenly aware include many people directly impacted by these problems.”

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