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The extent of government IT issues following several prolonged periods of blackout late last year goes beyond the imagination of some deputies, with Scrutiny also poised to incorporate the findings into its ongoing review of the contract with Agilisys.
Deputy Andy Cameron told Express the failings and issues within the States, identified within an independent report into multiple outages which hit key public services, are “considerably worse” than expected.
“The complete neglect of renewing maintenance contracts, the incompetence in creating or maintain procedures, the breakdown in communication, the persistent and frequent downtime. Outages have improved but are still a serious concern.”
Deputy Cameron thinks any action plan going forward shouldn’t be left to civil servants and needs to move at pace.
“We need a consultant review of what work is actually required to deliver a reliable and resilient system. This will deliver huge efficiencies to the States once in place - it simply cannot be delayed any further,” he said.
“A modern, robust IT system will allow civil servants, health professionals, and teaching staff to be far more productive, it is the backbone of a successful Guernsey. At present the States appear to be incapable of collecting tax even from those attempting to pay it.”
He also cast big doubts over senior States leaders’ plans to re-employ IT professionals to ensure stronger oversight and corporate knowledge.
“The idea of bringing IT specialists back onto the States’ own payroll is really questionable. I have serious concerns that the States will be able to entice suitably qualified IT specialists with the relevant experience, whilst offering competitive pay and work conditions,” he said.
“It failed previously and there is no reason to believe it will succeed now considering the desperate shortage of IT specialists within the island.”
He said he would prefer “one of the many local suitably qualified IT service providers to take over. We have no accountability at present - if we don’t have that accountability a repeat is the only certainty".
Pictured: Deputy Cameron shared data on gov.gg downtime with Express, with March to June of this year shown.
Writing on Facebook immediately after the publication of the report, Deputy Cameron said the review had revealed a “complete nightmare”.
“It is unbelievable that the complete failure of government IT infrastructure was allowed to transgress in this manner.
He said while most organisations have risk assessments focused on external agents and factors like hackers, the “most severe risks” found for the States are internal.
“Specifically issues of incompetence, neglect, and a complete breakdown in communication.”
Pictured: Deputy Yvonne Burford said the findings would be considered alongside a review into the States' contract with its outsourced IT provider.
Deputy Yvonne Burford, President of the Scrutiny Management Committee, said it is “disappointed but not surprised by the findings in the summary PWC report”.
“[Scrutiny] welcomes the action that is now being taken by Policy & Resources to address the systemic failings outlined in the PwC report to avoid further significant government IT outages.”
Deputy Burford said no public hearings have been planned based on the report as “confidentiality concerns mean that it would be very difficult to adequately address the relevant issues in a public forum”.
But she said the “rigour of the work” and findings from PwC would feed into Scrutiny’s wider review into the contract with Agilisys, which is due to be completed by the end of the year.
Pictured (top): Deputy Andy Cameron.
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