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Agilisys has welcomed the impending Scrutiny review into its contract to transform digital services for the States of Guernsey.
The IT firm says that a professional scrutiny process should help it to identify issues and opportunities to improve, but says it regularly consults with public officials to ensure the contract is performing as intended.
Richard Hanrahan, Chief Executive of Agilisys Guernsey, told Express that whilst the company regularly reviews its services internally “additional oversight can only help that journey of continuous improvement”.
“We as an organisation perform the majority of our contracts in the public sector and are always mindful of the responsibility we carry in administering public funds.
“It is often reported that the contract is the largest the States of Guernsey has signed with a third-party services provider, and it is right that value for money and contract performance are publicly scrutinised and assured by the appropriate committee.
“Furthermore, the Scrutiny hearing should provide politicians and the public with a greater understanding of the scope of the contract and the operation of the services within it.”
Pictured: Deputy Yvonne Burford is leading the review into the States/Agilisys contract.
Mr Hanrahan also reiterated that “the contract has a number of different financial elements, but the services that were folded into the contract were to be delivered at a fixed, guaranteed price offering the States a service at a price below their forecasted price for IT services".
“I also think it is important that the public recognise that the States of Guernsey has a team of experienced IT and procurement professionals who monitor and control the spend and VFM of the contract. They also set and govern policy adherence and have the final say on strategy.”
He added that variations within the contract can occur – such as when service contracts are renegotiated - but these are clearly documented.
“These contracts, whilst we don’t ‘own’ them appear in the £200m. Whilst the headline £200m has always been at the forefront of the public consciousness, the allocation of that spend across global application and software providers such as Microsoft, SAP and Fujitsu alongside local providers for example is not well understood,” said Mr Hanrahan.
“Years of under-investment cannot be quickly addressed. So, whilst areas like Education, or Health or [law enforcement] are vitally important, we have had to work out from the core, addressing years and years of under-investment, otherwise we risk putting new devices in offices or classrooms or hospitals but allowing the same problems of poor connectivity or reliability and resilience to remain."
Pictured: A link on Agilisys’s website directing towards their work with the States of Guernsey is a broken link.
The broken link on the firm’s website, pictured above, originally led to a press release detailing the scope initiatives of SMART Guernsey.
Mr Hanrahan says the link will be removed, since the press release “appears to no longer be on the States website” which is managed by the States communications team.
Pictured (top): Richard Hanrahan , Chief Executive of Agilisys Guernsey.
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