Swiss Federal Audit Office

(SFAO)

Audit of the key ICT project federal GEVER programme Federal Chancellery Read full summary in English

2015 report EFK-15628

During the first stage, two new GEVER (electronic records and process management) products were procured in an open WTO tender within the framework of the two-product strategy (federal GEVER WTO procurement project). CHF 1.6 million was spent on these. The departments and Federal Chancellery (departments/FCh) had to choose one of the two products within three months of the contract being awarded.

In the report: part A new GEVER standard is to be created and introduced at a cost of CHF 142 million (page 9)

- All of the departments and the FCh opted for the more economical one, i.e. ActaNova from Atos AG, because of the tight budgetary situation and other criteria such as product presentation and proof of concept results. The Federal Council adopted a corresponding guarantee credit of CHF 67 million for the following stages (dispatch of 11 September 2015 on financing the creation and introduction of a standardised GEVER product in the central Federal Administration). It still has to be approved by Parliament. In addition, contributions of CHF 75 million are needed from the departments and the FCh. The creation and introduction costs are thus CHF 142 million (creation and introduction of the federal GEVER programme). The total costs of almost CHF 144 million are comprised of those for the federal GEVER WTO procurement project and those for the creation and introduction of the federal GEVER programme. According to the dispatch, this investment stands against an annual reduction in operating costs of CHF 18 million.

In the report: part A basis for overcoming the remaining obstacles is being created with the programme (page 10)

- the FCh commenced preparatory work for the next creation and introduction stages. In this way, the FCh wishes to adhere to the ambitious schedule nonetheless. A uniform federal GEVER standard that has to be implemented in a binding manner by all departments and the FCh is to be created by 2017. It is to be introduced in departmental projects under the central steering and management of the programme by the end of 2018. GEVER should be managed as a standard service by the Federal IT Steering Unit (FITSU) from January 2019 onward. In order to ensure the necessary continuity, the SFAO recommends that responsibility should not be transferred from the FCh to the FITSU until launches have been successfully completed.

The risk cases visible on this page are collected and described by the e-Government Subgroup of the EUROSAI IT Working Group in contact with author Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI). In the same way, analytical assumptions and headings are chosen by the Subgroup. We encourage you to read the original texts by SAIs - to be found in the linked files.