Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
Accepted
The Treasury has told us that that all known issues with OSCAR II have now...
Recommendation
The Treasury has told us that that all known issues with OSCAR II have now been resolved as they move onto the production of the 2020–21 WGA. However, the Treasury informed us that it anticipates that there are likely to be some new issues that will yet arise. The system is supported by a service desk and the Treasury hopes that any new issues can be dealt with in the usual course of businesses without adding to the production delay; whether this will be the case is yet to be seen.35 The Treasury must demonstrate that it is now positioned to successfully manage additional problems that surface by working with its IT contractor to more clearly understand the timescales involved with resolving possible issues and making necessary system changes.36 Sustainability of the Local Government audit sector
Government Response Summary
The Treasury has changed its practices for project managing changes to the OSCAR II system and is negotiating a new plan with Deloitte. They are applying lessons learned in deciding on future support arrangements, with the existing contract due to end in November 2023.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
2. PAC conclusion: Poor design and testing of OSCAR II caused significant delays to the Whole of Government Accounts. 2. PAC recommendation: The Treasury should undertake a lessons-learnt exercise, specifically addressing but not limited to the root causes of poor design specification and testing of OSCAR II, and ensure identified improvements are implemented when applying future system changes. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The Treasury has undertaken a number of lessons learned exercises, including engaging the Government Internal Audit Agency to support this work. The lessons learned included more focus on getting the project governance right and investing in the internal project management team to support the relationship between the supplier and the process owners in the business. The Treasury has changed its practices for project managing changes to the system and is negotiating a new plan and approach with its current supplier, Deloitte, for the remaining stages of the OSCAR II project. 2.3 The Treasury fully recognises the problems encountered after the system went live, the challenges in resolving them, and how this contributed to delays in the WGA publication. The existing contract for the OSCAR II system is due to end November 2023, and the Treasury is applying the lessons learned in deciding on the future support and development arrangements for the system.