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This year marks the tenth anniversary. Billions poured into it. But no one can calculate exactly how much. Two people ended up in court for him, one in prison. And it is still not resolved at all.
Since 2012, the Ministry of Labor has been solving the biggest IT problem in the Czech state: contracts for strategic applications, through which, among other things, unemployment benefits or social benefits are paid to people. Seven ministers have failed to launch them over the years.
Now, five months after the accession of Minister Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL), one of the possible solutions is emerging. The point is, the ministry would throw behind everything it has done on the problem project so far. And it would start again, even at the cost of wasted money.
Since March, a new deputy, Karel Trpkoš, has been in charge of the Ministry of Labor of IT.
Trpkoš commissioned the consulting firm Ernst & Young to prepare an analysis as far as possible. So how to do it so that new applications are created as quickly as possible and at a reasonable price. And one of the possibilities is that all running orders and work will stop.
“Yes, if we find that such a path will lead us to our destination much better than others,” confirms Deputy Trpkoš in an interview with Seznam Zprávy.
A sad story, says the newcomer
The possibilities outlined are that the ministry has not finished either of the two key applications after years, moreover, which are interconnected with other systems. Simply put: if one is not done, the other components do not run either.
The system for paying unemployment benefits was originally supposed to cost 106 million under Minister Michaela Marksová (ČSSD), which was to be launched in 2017. It did not happen. The ministry gradually paid 270 million to Atos Solutions, the winner of the 2015 tender.
But that’s not all. The ministry announced another order for the full completion of the application in the autumn: in total, according to estimated prices, the system would cost another 430 million. Moreover, with an uncertain launch date, because the tender has currently been canceled by the Office for the Protection of Competition and the selection of the winner is thus dragging on again.
The second important competition, the one for the payment of social benefits, has been concreted for years – since 2016, candidate companies and the ministry have been arguing over it not only with the Office for Competition, but also with the courts. “It’s a very sad story. Nothing has been done in six years, we have not escaped legal disputes, “admits Deputy Trpkoš.
One prison, one deal
Two senior officials have already taken IT orders to the Ministry of Labor in court. The first was Vladimír Šiška, who in 2012 – under his boss, Minister Jaromír Drábek (TOP 09) – launched a big plan: they wanted to replace the existing company OKsystem with a new, cheaper supplier. However, Šiška distributed the orders without competition, and was given four years in prison for manipulating tenders.
Jan Baláč, Deputy Minister Michaela Maláčová (ČSSD), received a condition in court this year, again for machinations. Baláč confessed and concluded a so-called guilt and punishment agreement with the court. The court acknowledged that Baláč had clumsily tried to unblock the 100 million contract for the payment of benefits. He suggested to one of the IT companies that if he withdrew from the dispute over this tender, he would get a chance in other contracts. However, this is a criminal offense in a public tender.
That is why it is possible that the ministry will take – if recommended by a consulting firm – a thick line behind this era. Regardless of the billions spent.
“It simply came to our notice then. These are the costs burned. We have to follow the care of a proper manager, “explains Trpkoš. Or: according to the deputy, it is better to sacrifice earlier expenses than to spend more and more money with uncertain results.
Five years ago, the Supreme Audit Office also harshly criticized the state, where the ministry has been spending money on existing systems for years and competing and paying for new ones indefinitely. The auditors then calculated that it cost 30 million a month – and described such a procedure as uneconomical.
OKsystem, which has been working for the state since the 1990s, operates the applications, through which it flows in batches and support of around 100 billion a year.
One of the possibilities is that the payment of benefits will continue to run on OKsystem applications. But before that, the ministry will find a company in an open competition that will ensure the operation and maintain the application. Which, technically, can be OKsystem, but also other candidates will emerge from the tender, because the ministry owns all the codes and other requisites that it will make available to the winner of the contract.
Fictional story about IT
Minister Jaromír Drábek from TOP 09 came up with the first idea to rebuild batch IT in 2012. Due to the subsequent scandal and the arrest of a co-worker, this ended his political career.
Today’s, not very successful, plan to overthrow applications then arose during Sobotka’s reign. Minister Marks was responsible for him, who appointed her deputy Robert Bax as the chief architect of the change.
According to critics, Bax promised the impossible: to have everything ready in four years and at unbeatable prices.
This is shown by the already mentioned contract for the payment of support, which is five times more expensive out of the original 106 million. Baxa also told MEPs in the spring of 2017 that all they had to do was fine-tune the system and it would be busy from November.
It was not true, no application existed yet – and it is not in the world to this day. “He made unrealistic deadlines. The whole thing was a fictional story, “said Robin Povšík (CSSD) last autumn, who was in charge of the Minister’s IT under Minister Maláčová.
Marks is innocent, police said
In 2017, the Supreme Audit Office focused on IT contracts of the Ministry of Labor. He then issued a devastating 100-page report. In short, contracts are becoming more expensive without the law, the ministry is wasting hundreds of millions, and in some cases suspicious, overpriced payments to external consultants have emerged.
The inspectors filed two criminal reports. In fact, she aimed at Minister Michaela Marksová (ČSSD) and IT Deputy Robert Bax. Both ended in suspension, according to the police, nothing criminal happened.
The current deputy Trpkoš also has a similar opinion on the price of this application. “Of course. The scope of the system is such that it could not be done for this money, “he agrees.
The Connexionblog repeatedly asked Bax for an opinion, but without success.
After Marksová, her successor Maláčová also set a clear goal for solving protracted problems with IT: the year 2022. It failed. Deputy Trpkoš is now refusing to say any completion date. “If I start throwing deadlines here for you now, I will deny reality,” he says.
Salaries as in the company
When the Supreme Audit Office (IT) inspected contracts five years ago, auditors were struck by how little the ministry had experts in the field (the entire team preparing complex contracts consisted of only two employees).
And that he had to hire very expensive advisers because of that – moreover, with the suspicion that millions were running away through various small houses. For example, the brother of the then deputy Baxy had an external contract at the ministry.
The office objected that it could not attract IT professionals because it was hindered by capped official salaries. Again, this was not true, according to the law, the ministry could already use exceptions from salary tables and evaluate experts similarly as in the business sphere.
Deputy Trpkoš now says that he managed to break this and the team of ten experts, which he is now assembling, negotiated the salaries common for the IT industry.
“Our IT architect will sit at the table for 70 thousand and opposite him will be a person in the same position in the company, where he takes 120 thousand. So ours will be able to polish the other one’s shoes as much as possible. And that’s wrong. A well-paid person must also sit on our side, “said Trpkoš.
