Earlier this month, councilors had an opportunity to discuss the past and current issues faced by birmingham city council in its Implementation of an Enerprise Resource Planning (ERP) System From Oracle,
The council's Extraordinary Meeting, Held on 11 MarchGave Council members a chance to Voice their Concerns Following Publication of a Grant Thornton Report in Fabrury Looking at What Went Went Want Woint the Implementation of the orecle Erp System. Work will continue on the reimplement, which is due to go live in April 2026.
Counciler albert boy noted that the council previously ran a 10-yar joint venture with capita to run an sap erp system. This ended in 2018, when the council took the decision to insource its function and move to a cloud-based Oracle Erp System.
DURING this time, bore said it Expertise was help in the council, but what is followed was, according to boy, “a predictable debacle”.
A complete message
Councillor Meiron Jenkins, Who has Previous Experience of Implementing ERP Systems, Said: “Implementing Erp Systems has been my life for 40 years and Over that time I've Some Some Implementations, but this really is a one-off. It is truly remarkable what a complete message you made of implementing it. “
The findings of the Grant Thornton Value-For-Money Report Into the Oracle ERP Project Highlight Serious Serious Governance Concerns, Lack of Ownership Among Senior Executives and A Culture That Deterred Negative CONCERNS BEING RAISED.
As jenkins points out, if seniors are not closedly involved in the details of an erp implementation, the chance of it going wrang increases significantly. “And that's what's happy here,” He said, referring to the birmingham city council's implementation of Oracle to replace sap.
Jenkins said that in 2020 he collaborated on a scrutiny inquiry into the birmingham city council oracle project before it began. “We made some recommendations. If only those recommendations had been followed, so many of these problems would have been avoided, ”He said.
In his 2020 Letter to Councilors about the Forthcoming Oracle Project, Jenkins Included a Link to an article covening great erp disasters. “I put it in trust I thought [they could] Read these great erp disasters – and these were big companies, run by experienced Senior People, Who Had Gone So Badly Wrong. “
As well as failings of Senior Management, Some Councilors Raised Concerns That The External Professionals paid to Audit the Council Should have put more emphasis on the Risks on the Risks being carried by the council ITS ERP Implementation.
Questions on External Audit
One councilor said to computer weekly: “Were the Senior Executives Not Being Truthful to the External Auditors? I think this is one of the things we need to understand as an Organization. “
Councilor Lee Marsham said: “We should all be alarmed at this report because, Regardless of our political leanings, we were all kind. In the spirit of cross-party working, I want to Praise Council Jenkins who Asked The Right Questions in the Audit Committee and was Told By Very Senior Officers, 'NOTHING TO SEETHING TO SEE HeERE'. “
Marsham also praise the work of councilor paul tilsey as Vice-Cair of the Audit Committee, and the Previous Audit Committee Chair, COUNCILLOLOR FRED GRINDROD, Who Hey Said “Challenged Officers and Was Told reepeatedly that he was wrong to do so “.
Marsham pointed out that in March 2023, The External Auditor Reported that Oracle was not a Significant Risk. “Our external auditors [Grant Thornton] Last week revised to the audit committee for the first time that they were not told the full facts eite. Cold Our External Auditor, A Corporate Partner, Have Done More? ” He asked.
Tilsey went further, saying: “i've read the report very, very carefully. There is a criticism I would have to make of Grant Thornton, Because in the report it says quite clear that Senior officers were not responsible [Stocks] and his team. ” Stocks, who works for Grant Thornton, is birmingham city council's external auditor. “I think I might have taken some very affirmative action in that kind of situation,” tilsey added.
Six months after the March 2023 Auditor's report, there appears to be a very clear indication that the auditor was seeking greatness on the project and the reimplement. September 2023's external auditor's report prepared by grant thorn lists a statutory recommendation that the council should set a target date for the completion of the company Implementation. “We Consider that this should be completed by 30 November 2023,” The auditor stated.
Another statutory recommendation stated: “The council should consider the capacity of its Senior Staff to Deal with the Oracle 'Safe and Compliant' and 'Reimplementation' Phaces Along the PHASEDEDED
The latest Auditor's Report recommends that the council ensure additional Resources are provided to ensure the “Critical Project” is Completed at the Earliest Oportunity. “This may include additional internal or external it capacity and capability. In the longer term, the council will need to ensure that its rebuilds its own capacity and capability, ”The report stated.
A spokesperson for grant thornton uk said: “We note the comments and questions raised by councilors in relationship to our report in the public interest; However, we do not agre with some of these comments and belie they stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the responsibility of Auditors Amongst certaincil members. As has previously been explained to the councilors, Auditors are not responsible for the implementation of council financial systems – this is the responsibilities of the officers and memebers. “
The National Audit Office Code of Practice Sets Out the Responsibilites of Auditors – as Grant Thornton Notes, there is no requirement to Audit the IMPLEMENTION OF Financial Systemss.
“We note that other councils implements financial systems every year without auditor involvement and without the level of failure that have obcurred at birmingham,” the sporesonson said. “Given the Previous Failure to effectively implemently, we controlle to monitor the situation and whether we should take the unusual step of carrying out an audit of the reimplication.”
Still Running Late
During the extraordinary meeting, councilor jaime scott stated that birmingham's income management system (IMS), which is one of the most fundamental parts of how the councils and the counseling Running behind its original timescale for implementation.
Previously, Grant Thornton Auditor Stocks Discussed The Workaround The Council Had Put in Place with Its Existing Bank Reconciliation System (BRS). When asked about the delays of the new ims, stocks said: “You can't go live until because you have your workarounds for the current cash system. You have to delay until you ready and we actively encourage all our clients to delay until all the testing is done, “Adding that unless the system is running properly,” All you will be seen is renaning is replacing one dysfunctional System with another ”.
Speaking to Computer Weekly, Scott Said that after a conversation with the Oracle Project Lead, The Oracle Implementation Team is Confident the IMS will be ready. But, he added: “We need to keep a check on it to ensure there's not any further slippage, because if these things slip, we clock easily then be into christmas.” Such a Slippage Could Impact The New Provisional Live Date of April 2026.