The company which was tasked with overhauling the States IT systems and online platforms has said the amount of work which was needed was “understated” when the contract was signed.
Agilisys was given a 10-year £200 million contract in 2019 to deliver and maintain the majority of the government’s IT services. That contract was cancelled earlier this year for “performance related reasons”.
Since then a multi-vendor model has been implemented, which the States’ Chief Digital & Information Officer has said is going well.
However, recently, deep seated digital problems within core States service areas have been revealed. The States Chief Executive said £42m has been spent on two platforms which have not delivered what they were intended to.
In response to the recent publicity surrounding those failures, a spokesperson for Agilisys has urged people to re-read the Scrutiny Management Committee Review, which makes clear that its contract with the States was mismanaged from the outset.
Agilisys says that the problems it encountered in working with the States can be traced back to the initial contract – with the Scrutiny report highlighting that the necessary work was “underestimated” and there were “insufficient resources” to do that work.
Agilisys further states that the contract was not given the oversight it needed with the Scrutiny panel agreeing that the firm had “limited chances of ultimate success from the outset”.
“In light of ongoing commentary surrounding the States of Guernsey’s MyGov and Revenue Service programmes, Agilisys considers it important to restate the findings of the States of Guernsey’s own independent Scrutiny Management Committee Review into the Future Digital Services contract,” said the Agilisys spokesperson.
“The Review concluded that the difficulties experienced across major transformation programmes, including MyGov and the IT elements of the Revenue Service Phase 3 programme, arose primarily because ‘the scale of the work required was underestimated’ and because the States lacked ‘the level and volume of retained technical expertise within the public sector needed to effectively manage and oversee the contract’.
“The Panel was explicit that the States’ so-called Intelligent Client Function’s effectiveness was ‘severely limited’ by insufficient resources, and that this resulted in ‘insufficient’ oversight during the early years of the contract.
“In relation to both MyGov and the Revenue Service, the Review found that the relevant Statements of Work ‘did not specify exactly what was to be produced’ and were not sufficiently detailed or robust. The Panel stated that, as a result, these programmes ‘had a limited chance of ultimate success’ from the outset.
“The Review further observed that a number of decisions taken during the early years of the programmes are now ‘difficult to justify and defend’, and that some of the outcomes delivered were ‘disappointing’. However, it is clear that these outcomes arose from a combination of inadequate programme definition, under-scoping, contract structure, and insufficient client-side technical leadership and governance, rather than the actions of any single party acting in isolation.
“It is important that public commentary reflects these findings in full. The Review makes clear that the fundamental challenges affecting both MyGov and the Revenue Service lay in programme design, scope and internal oversight within the States of Guernsey, rather than being attributable to delivery alone.”