The Scrutiny Management Committee has published a damning report on the States of Guernsey’s Future Digital Services contract with Agilisys.

In 2019 the States of Guernsey signed a £200M 10-year contract with Agilisys for the management and development of IT.

Three years later the Scrutiny Management Committee launched a lengthy review of the effectiveness of the agreement.

This examined the major system outages in late 2022 and early 2023, the implementation of the IT elements for the Revenue Service and MyGov, and the provision of day-to-day IT support.

It found the implications of entering a decade-long partnership with Agilisys were not fully understood, the scale of the work required by the States of Guernsey was underestimated and there was inadequate technical expertise within the States to effectively manage and oversee the contract.

It found a lack of monitoring by the States over the first three years of the contract led to 'significant problems' such as 'implementation delays and money being wasted.'

The Scrutiny Management Committee makes five recommendations:

• A qualified Chief Information Officer should be put in place to manage IT decisions.
• Guernsey States must establish a clear technology strategy for future action.
• Significant investment is needed for progress to be made.
• An IT Advisory Board with IT and business experts should give advice when major contracts are being negotiated or senior technical staff are being appointed.
• Specialist IT contract management needs to be improved to oversee an outsourced contract of this nature.

Policy & Resources Deputy Bob Murray leads on political oversight of corporate services. He says many of the recommendations have already been introduced:

‘It is accepted that the States has faced significant challenges in effectively managing a contract of the size and complexity as that awarded to Agilisys in 2019.

"These challenges have been recognised in recent years, with the result being that the Head of the Public Service took steps to make improvements to the oversight of the contract and apply appropriate challenge on its delivery.

"As such – and given the timeframe reviewed by SMC was 2019 to early 2023 – the recommendations in its report largely align with the changes already introduced or in progress.

"While we naturally want to ensure there is sufficient focus on the improvements made in the last two years in particular, we absolutely acknowledge there has been a period of adjustment needed and the performance and oversight of the contract was not where it needed to be.

"We do, however, believe that the IT provision and its resilience will continue to improve in the coming years."

The first recommendation was the recruitment of a Chief Digital and Information Officer. Gé Drossaert was appointed in early 2024 and he says ensuring the States has effective IT provision is a priority:

"We continue to discuss with Agilisys how best to deliver the outcomes of the contract and I’m confident that both our IT provision, and the value for money taxpayers receive, will continue to improve in the coming years."

Agilisys CEO Andrew Mindenhall reiterates that the majority of Scrutiny's recommendations have been put in place:

"I would like to acknowledge the tenacity and commitment of all the individuals across the partnership who have been pivotal in delivering the changes identified, as well as the professionalism and resilience shown in sometimes challenging situations.

"Together, we have made significant strides in building the digital foundations needed to support the island's future."