States Of Guernsey To Debate ICT Review

by Amanda Banks, Tax-News.com, London

11 September 2001

The Guernsey States Audit Commission published its latest report last week entitled 'Review of Information and Communications Technology in the States of Guernsey.' Usually, the Audit Commission's reports are submitted as an Appendix to the Billet D'Etat but the Commission has announced its decision to place the report before the States for debate because it feels that the report 'raises matters of great importance.'

In a statement released by the Guernsey government, chairman of the Audit Commission, John Lee, explained: 'Over the past three years since the Audit Commission was set up, we have been increasingly concerned at the number of Internal Audit Reports we receive highlighting significant problems in the way ICT is used and administered within States committees. It is an umbrella problem that affects every corner of the way the States operates, from committees to the States themselves.'

As a consequence the Commission called in the ICT consultancy branch of PricewaterhouseCoopers to perform a 'root and branch review' of ICT use within the States to pinpoint why problems recur and to analyse ICT value for money.

The PwC report found that the States has not been reallising best value in its overall management of ICT, a major cause of this being the structure of the States in which most committees act independently of each other with regard to expenses and planning. The report recommends that the States, in order to achieve more value for money from its ICT operations, should act in a more cohesive manner.

The States Treasury Department claimed: 'The Commission's report identifies issues which the States has been grappling with for some time. The States has already started to address the problem with the current E-Pact project, which will provide a common solution to purchasing and finance throughout the States and will deliver a number of benefits in terms of more efficient and effective ways of working. However, we need the commitment of committees to act more co-operatively to deliver the value for money expected by the Commission's latest report.'

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