A new computer records system for Northern Ireland’s livestock industry will be delivered more than five years behind schedule, an Audit Office report has found.
The report said delays meant the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) has lost nearly half the 12-year operating period of the new system and has incurred an additional £6 million of internal costs.
The report examined the process of replacing the APHIS system with the Northern Ireland Food Animal Information System (NIFAIS), designed to record real-time information on animal movements and animal health.
The information is used for multiple purposes, including disease management, providing assurance to customers and consumers, and to verify funding applications.
The report said the new computer system would cost DAERA approximately £64 million to complete.
The report said: “The NIFAIS contract was awarded in 2016 based on a nine-year term including an initial three-years to build the system.
“Current expectations are that the system will be complete in 2024, more than five years behind schedule and with less than a year of the contract remaining, although there are options to extend it by up to six years.”
Meanwhile, the APHIS system continues to operate at an annual cost of £500,000 while its replacement is being built.
The report said: “APHIS has been operating beyond its contract tenure since 2008 and cannot be switched off until NIFAIS is complete.
“The contract has overrun its terms by 16 years and the department continues to rely on a technology platform that is over 20 years old.”
The audit said DAERA had encountered several issues over the course of the new system’s development which had contributed to delays.
It said the delays were due to several issues, including a lack of understanding of complex system functionality, DAERA staff without appropriate skills assigned to the project and communications with the supplier broke down when serious issues arose on the project.
It said: “The department finally completed a procurement process in 2016 with a contract to build a replacement system, nine years after the APHIS contract expired.
“The winning bidder was the company that built APHIS and it committed to build a new system in three years.
“Despite the supplier’s experience in developing and maintaining APHIS, it struggled to deliver the software and in 2020 the department paused the project for approximately a year.
“After re-evaluation, the department negotiated a revised delivery plan with the supplier and the system is planned to be completed in October 2024.”
The report concluded: “Final costs are expected to be 10% higher than originally planned, albeit DAERA will have (at best) six-and-a-half years of a fully operational system versus the 12 years expected.
“Although the project was managed well from a commercial cost perspective, internal costs escalated, along with the continued costs in supporting the APHIS system and the business risks this posed to the department and its customers.
“The lost opportunity of utilising scarce staff time on other work and the unrealised benefits of having a modern system in place for all its stakeholders represents poor value for money.”
Comptroller and Auditor General Dorinnia Carville said: “The lessons emerging from this report have relevance to many other public-sector projects.
“Appropriate governance and having the right skills and experience in place from the outset are vital to ensuring risks at both the procurement and development stage can be quickly identified and managed.
“In the case of the NIFAIS project, not having a modern system in place has resulted in benefits for stakeholders not being realised and staff time not being spent on other departmental work, representing poor value for money for taxpayers.”
