Anyone reading the report of the Audit Commission on a
new infrastructure and IT systems upgrade for council staff in
Haringey, north-east London, could conclude that the project had
been managed like a badly run small family business.
The Tech Refresh project has cost nearly £25m - more than double
its original budget of £9m - and the report of the Audit
Commission, which audits the books of local councils, makes grim
reading.
After detailing a project running out of control, the commission
said, "From the documents available to us, it is unclear how
budgetary control was exercised."
Now it seems Haringey's ruling councillors are determined to
right the wrongs highlighted in the report.
They have announced a comprehensive action plan to ensure that
Tech Refresh and other projects are run more openly, with stronger
lines of accountability and better reporting to councillors.
Having spent heavily on outside consultants, Haringey had the
action plan produced by its own staff, using the Audit Commission
report for guidance.
A spokesman said, "The action plan responding to the Audit
Commission report was produced in-house by our improvement and
performance team, which is now skilled up in project management
and, under the action plan, will be taking a central role in
projects of this kind."
The council said that by April 2006 projects will be mapped to
the new structures and by June 2006 the new meeting arrangements
for councillors will be in place.
The Audit Commission is expected to check this month whether the
council's action plan is an adequate response to its criticisms of
the Tech Refresh project.
Haringey's action plan
The Haringey Council action plan provides a checklist for local
authorities and other organisations to measure whether they have in
place appropriate mechanisms to help ensure that IT projects are
run on well structured lines.
Council's key actions
- Monitor expected costs against actual costs.
- Consider using "subject matter experts" to "challenge the
design of future projects" and give independent, external
advice.
- Ensure there are Gateway reviews at key stages in a project's
life.
- Have an independent representative on project boards.
- Ensure that details of all major projects are entered onto the
council's corporate risk register to "provide visibility and
transparency".
- Ensure that internal auditors review a sample of projects to
check they adhere to project management processes. They will also
verify that there is adequate reporting to the council.
- Ensure there are clear audit trails for decision making on
projects.
Set up steering groups of councillors
New steering groups of councillors will lead stream boards to
give "political steer, strategic direction and democratic
oversight." They will not have operational control, which is the
job of council officers.
The groups will comprise the lead councillor or councillors for
the relevant portfolio, the director for the service area and the
project sponsor for major projects attached to the stream board.
The councillors will:
- Set strategic direction for projects within their stream.
- Monitor reports detailing progress against key milestones and
budgets.
- Scrutinise key risks and issues without involvement in project
management.
- Pick up links and interdependencies with other
portfolios.
Establish stream boards
There will be a stream board for each key priority to help
ensure that all major service areas are covered. Members of the
management board will chair the stream board relevant to their line
management responsibility.
A representative from corporate finance will sit on each stream
board to ensure that finance has an overview of the cost
implications of all the council's major projects. When needed, a
member of the change team will sit on stream boards.
The project sponsor/board for major projects will be required to
report to the stream and programme board any significant change
requests, classified as budget overspends in excess of £25,000, any
slippage to the overall implementation date for the project, or
material changes to the scope of the scheme.
Set up independent PMO
An independent programme management office (PMO) will be set up,
in part to provide "strong leadership" on the council's improvement
agenda.
The PMO will work with the IT programme management office and
the change team to ensure that this good practice is captured and
disseminated.
"It is vital that the programme manager has a strategic
understanding of the council's business so that they are able to
challenge and police programme projects effectively."
The PMO will:
- Produce the programme highlight report and monitor
progress.
- Track interdependencies and staff resources.
- Flag concerns with individual projects to stream and programme
boards.
- Monitor attendance at project boards and stream boards.
- Ensure audit trails exist and are easily accessible for all
projects.
- Maintain a library of project documentation and minutes of
meetings for programme projects.
- Capture and disseminate the lessons learned from completed
projects.
- Be a repository of best practice in project management.
- Track benefits against each of the projects and for the
programme as a whole.
Ensure budgets are monitored
Major spending on projects will be detailed in service business
plans. "We will strengthen this further by ensuring that a member
of corporate finance will sign off project briefs and project
initiation documents and ensure proper consideration of risk is
included."
Financial management roles and responsibilities must be clearly
defined. There will be changes to the "programme highlight report"
to ensure that major budget variations are reported.
The council said it will ensure that actual and budgeted costs
are reported and discussed, including those covering project staff,
meetings, expenses, overtime, quality assurance staff, user
testing, consultancy, hardware, software, installation,
infrastructure, licences and temporary workers.
Review change request process
One of the Audit Commission's criticisms was that the council
allowed £7.1m of change requests without keeping adequate records
of reporting to the council. Change requests are variations and
extensions to the contract, specification or its scope.
The council said, "The project sponsor/board for major projects
will be required to report to stream and programme board any
significant change requests." These include any budget changes and
adjustments over £25,000, slippage to the overall timescales and
implementation dates or material changes in the scope of a
scheme.
The £25,000 limit applies to the cumulative total of change
requests as well as individual ones. Changes costing less than
£25,000 must be reported to the project board for agreement.
Improve reporting to the council
The council said it will ensure that if risks on major projects
materialise and the project's leaders are unable to identify
savings to offset extra costs, details must be reported to the
programme board and the authority's executive committee of
councillors.