The Public Accounts Committee is to follow-up with the Government following the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (C&AG) report on ‘Integrated Technology Solution (ICT) Cloud Implementation’, published earlier this week.
The C&AG found that the original business case was “overly optimistic” in regard to costs and that there is a need for:
- Clear links between the ITS programme and other active programmes for Government modernisation;
- A coherent strategy and supporting plan to realise the established benefits;
- Government to identify how ITS fits into other digital modernisation programmes
The PAC expressed its concern at these findings and will follow up with senior officers in charge of the programme once it has received the Government’s formal response to the report on 26 November.
The PAC will raise questions in a public forum on the overall cost of installing and running the new ITS systems, the lack of information on the full business case potentially leading to an unrealistic timetable for the IT overhaul, and how the training programmes for staff will function. It will question whether there is a lack of ‘buy in’ from other departments, particularly Health, and whether the right people are in the right place to deliver the programme.
Deputy Inna Gardiner, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said “The Public Accounts Committee supports the C&AG’s conclusions and will follow up this work to ensure that the ITS Project demonstrates value for money. We understand the need to replace out of date, unsupported IT systems, but we must make sure it is done as smoothly and as cost-effectively as possible and delivers improved public services.”
Scrutiny Press Release.