SOCIAL SECURITY paid a fair price for its new computer system, according to the former vice president of the then Social Security Authority.
Andrew Sauvarin (pictured below) was the lead member for the project that oversaw the organisation’s move to a PC-server-based system, and the adviser to the board.
He has heavily criticised a Public Accounts Committee report which claims there was a £3m. overspend and insists the island’s social security system is up there with some of the best in the world.
‘The PAC report talks about budgets but there was no budget.
‘There were only indicative costs,’ said Mr Sauvarin, who was at the authority until 2004.
‘Social security systems throughout the world are the most complicated you can find. You won’t find a computer expert who can give you a price on them.
‘They’re all unique. It’s not as simple as buying one off the shelf.’
Mr Sauvarin said the only time Social Security had budgeted for anything in the project was when the board approved a budget of £4,600,000 for the full two-year customisation of the Curam framework.
He said the claim by PAC that there was no communication about the project or its costs with the States was also wide of the mark.
‘People would have known if they had gone through the audits and the accounts.
‘The PAC report has been rushed through. They haven’t done a proper job. There was no budget and there couldn’t have been one. Compared to other projects around the world, ours was very cheap.
‘The social security business is a £1bn business. It’s huge and the biggest in the States.
‘The guys at Social Security who put this system in place need a pat on the back for what they have produced, not a kick in the teeth.
‘It’s very unfortunate the way it has come across because those guys have done a really good job, but the report does not portray it as that.’
Mr Sauvarin said there had been no other choice to upgrade the software, because the mainframe system was out of date.
He said the authority had in a way been lucky that the Curam system had come along at the right time.
‘We didn’t know what it was going to cost but it looked right and sounded right in relation to our social security system.
‘Since then, Curam has practically become the standard for any platform.
‘But back then we had to get people to come to the island and look at our business to see how it would work with our system. I don’t think the process would be any different today.
‘We have seen some of the best computer companies in the world and even they struggle to put this into a modern framework. But ours has.’
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