The federal government needs to seriously rework the way it spends billions of dollars on large-scale information technology procurement projects, say industry experts, after costly failures such as the nearly $60-million ArriveCan application, and the disastrous Phoenix pay system have drained millions of taxpayer dollars. The RCMP also recently confirmed that its conducting multiple criminal investigations into federal contracting, including one looking into the ArriveCan app.
's competitive process. The Trudeau Liberal government rolled out the program in 2016, which the unions said at the time was premature. Government records show there have been 50 amendments to the initial Phoenix contract to fix the errors of the system, between June 2011 and December 2020, for a total contract value of $545-million. In May 2019,
sought bids from suppliers to provide operational support for the Phoenix pay system after the end of IBM’s original contract. While three firms responded to the invitation to qualify, according to , only IBM met the requirements, and a new contract worth $108.9-million was signed. McKinsey & Company was also awarded a contract with total value of $27.7-million in February 2020 to provide consultation for work meant “to streamline processes and standardize work at the Public Service Pay Centre to increase efficiency and reduce processing times for pay transactions,” according to government records.
is the government's main buyer of goods and services, but Shared Services Canada is responsible for delivering IT services that supports government-wide programs and digital services for the public service. ikoca@hilltimes.com