By james art 
It had to be a quick upgrade of a new IT system – the new report reveals how the use of Oracle Fusion became catastrophically wrong
The Birmingham City Council struck the “Go Live” button on new finances and paid the IT system, despite the widespread “Red Flag” warnings, triggering a catastrophic collapse that costs more than £ 100 million and takes years to work, says A new report.
The plan for the implementation of the new Oracle Fusion scheme was a “fundamental drawback” from the beginning and ultimately failed catastrophically, according to the public interest report of the auditors published this week.
As a result, the Council – the largest in Europe – will not have a system for the functioning of funding by at least 2026 and was exposed to massive risks for fraud.
The Council “failed to fulfill its obligation to provide the best value” to taxpayers -one of its most basic requirements.
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The findings are set out in the report on 66 pages of external auditors Grant Thornton on how a complex but achievable transition to a cloud -based IT system has gone so wrong. Instead of improving efficiency and providing savings, he contributed to the fact that the Council was directed at factual bankruptcy.
The report makes a damn reading, with a key finding that the Council tried to adapt the new system to meet its old ways of working, not the other way around, with a catastrophic impact. They also found that the decision to “go live” in April 2022 was made despite the huge risks and concerns of worrying staff.
External performers and suppliers, called Evosys, Socitm and Exit, gave the green light to the critical meeting scheme before movement, despite many problems that had to be catastrophic.
In the reports of employees and contractors, they “presented a highly optimistic view” in high -level reports, while details of the risks and other issues were identified only in the support of the documents.
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This “good news mantra” is a flowing topic through the report, which also found that there was pressure on the program team to “be optimistic”. This contributed to the lack of transparency and presented a “potentially misleading opinion”, the auditors have found.
Unknown elections to the City Council (in May 2022) mean that there is a pressure on employees to “report progress and good news, not in the actual position of the project.” “The council’s culture at the time seemed to be one where either bad news was not welcome, or employees felt uncomfortable to report bad news.”
The challenging financial background and the upcoming Commonwealth games also fought for attention at that time and senior officers were facing numerous competitive demands.
The report was drawn up after interviews with current and former employees and analysis of data and reports.
A separate independent report on the efficiency of external contractors and suppliers – who also include the Ameo Professional Services LTD, which provided the program director and project manager – is stored under packaging, the report adds. He is “legally privileged” and his findings are not included, the auditors said.
Auditors say they have found “basic weaknesses that have never been effectively removed” in project management and management. They were “additionally exposed by high turnover of the staff in senior and operational roles.”
There was a clear lack of ownership of the responsibility for the program. Members whose role was to look at the main projects and decisions were beyond their depth and “did not appreciate the complexity and level of risk.”
They told auditors that they thought they “have no capacity and ability to apply meaningful control” and rely on senior officials and partners. The problems were “belittled” and the officers assured that the advisers were under control and addressed.
There was an opportunity to dispute this opinion, given the weight of the available information, but they were not taken.
The impact of these failures will be long -lasting. These include:
- The Council did not have an adequate financial management system and monetary system for more than two years
- Is unable to produce reliable financial statements or reliably account for income and expenses
- The failures contributed to the actual bankruptcy of the Council in 2023.
- This unacceptable state of things is expected to continue until the system can be implemented … in 2026 (as soon as possible). “
The adoption of the Oracle merger scheme had to take 17 months and cost approximately £ 18.7 million to implement. It will deliver savings of £ 26.9 million throughout its life. By March 2021, the project allocated an additional 20 million pounds, taking their costs to £ 38.7 million; And the expected savings were reduced to £ 10.9 million.
Its final costs are still uncertain. The report refers to the expected additional price of £ 90 million, but other estimates put the final costs for up to £ 200 million.
The decision to “go live” was catastrophic
On the eve of Go Live in April 2022, more problems arose. Critical defects in financial systems were reported, and testing was incomplete, signaling many critical or priority defects. In a critical financial area of business, the employees expressed their fears of living with a solution that is not stable … “Testing summaries takes into account risks.
However, the Go Live agreement was confirmed by suppliers leading to finance, HR, orders and IT – “All were happy”, the report said …. they “presented a positive trajectory”, but “easily accessible information, indicated to a higher degree of risk and uncertainty by the proposed titles. “
The council went live with Oracle on April 11, 2022. There was “Immediate” at 100 to 150 calls a day at ICT the auxiliary part of ICT. More than 8,000 were recorded in the first six months.
Critical problems include:
- Insufficient security meant that staff could have access and potentially change data – the risk of fraud – and its transactions could not be effectively audited as a result.
- The salary, considered as one of the most stable areas of work, has caused hundreds of requests a month, mainly from schools. The staff reports a “sense of harassment”.
- Operational inspections such as Vital Staff DBS inspections, the right to remain inspections of the status for new employees and the absence management “do not work or incompatible”.
- In finance, the problems were deep. The money distribution service called BRS (bank coordination) is wrong or failed to publish a high level of transactions. This “significantly affects the integrity of financial and management reporting.”
The staff reported a “fire” with a growing lag behind. The temporary staff was prepared – at the same time, the relationship between the Council and its partners Evosys deteriorates.
In October 2022, external maintenance moved to the first after the completion of the Oracle Project. The auditors claim that there was a “large volume of emissions” at this point, but the Council still issued a number of certificates for the completion of Evosys outbound companies and insight.
A review of the problems in November 2022 found more key risks and problems and led to a “Oracle Stabilization Plan”. Shortly after the Council challenged Evosys and an idea of its provision, claims that Evosys did not do what the contract was concluded. “At this point, the system has not been functioning effectively for one year.” In his response, Evosys managed to prove the write -off.
Council leader John Cotton said today: “While the report creates difficult reading, this is an important document that clearly determines where mistakes are made, the significant impact and how we should learn from them.
“We will take on board all findings. We are making significant progress in repairing the Oracle system and returning our finances on the road.
“We worked to significantly strengthen management, understand the problems in the system and to learn lessons from what went wrong. The more work that is being undertaken is important for resolving identified issues and that the properly functioning financing and HR system is crucial to the effective implementation of the Council. “
The report will be discussed at an extraordinary meeting of the Municipal Council on Tuesday, March 11.