Letter - Public Accounts Committee to Chife Operating Officer re. Follow-Questions to Public Hearing - 5 November 2021

States Greffe: Scrutiny

John Quinn

Chief Operating Officer By email

5th November 2021

Dear Chief Operating Officer

Public Accounts Committee

Follow-Up Questions from Public Hearing with the PAC

Following your public hearing with the PAC on Monday 1st November 2021, I am writing to you with a series of follow-up questions, attached to this letter below.

The Panel would be grateful if you could please provide a response and the documentation requested in this letter by close of business on Wednesday 17th November 2021.

Yours sincerely

Deputy Inna Gardiner , Chair, Public Accounts Committee

Performance Management

1. What were your 3 main objectives in implementing the Target Operating Model for your department?
2. How much did the implementation of the Target Operating Model for your department cost?

1. Does that include all costs, including funds from the central budget?
2. How do you evaluate its success?
3. How do you evaluate its value for money?
4. Will we see a cost benefit analysis published?

3. What is your understanding of the how your department has adapted to its Target Operating Model? How do you track its evolution and how did you track its implementation?

1. Have changes to the Target Operating Model been considered as part of business planning or change project processes? If so, what, and did you sign off on it?
2. How does your department determine the feasibility of modifying its Target Operating Model, particularly in regard to complex changes?
3. How is feedback to your department monitored and used to design improvements to the way your department operates? How do you monitor this, the progress made, and the actions resulting directly from stakeholder feedback?

4. How do you ensure that staff in your department understand their part in delivering corporate and departmental objectives?
5. How has buy-in been secured within your department given the potential morale issues identified by last year's staff survey?
6. How are you developing independent learning opportunities for employees, to allow them to continuously learn and develop, particularly in regard to developing their performance?

a.  What emphasis do current performance management and improvement systems place on independent learning and development? Could this be improved, and if so, how?

7. How do you currently facilitate the independent tracking of performance?

1. How do you intend to develop the independent tracking of performance?
2. How do you follow-up with employees on independently tracked performance?
3. How does this factor into the wider performance assessment frameworks, such as My Conversation, My Goals?
4. How do you intend to improve the independent tracking of performance to deliver an increased understanding of how employees monitor and develop themselves?

Supply and Procurement

8. During the hearing, the Programme Director for Team Jersey mentioned that work was being undertaken to "create a learning development approved supplier framework." Please could you explain what this is, and how it will work?

1. How will corporate learning be encouraged and developed through this framework?
2. Which pre-existing frameworks are being used to develop it? Who is providing input into its design?
3. How will you determine whether the framework is improving procurement and commercial services practices and assess the framework's performance?
4. What are the key additional resources you expect to be delivered through this framework, and which Government of Jersey functions do you expect to benefit the most from it?

9. Please could you provide in confidence to the PAC a full timetable of the Systems Applications and Products project work, its costs, and details of the next steps planned once each Release has been made.

a.  Is the States (and its suppliers) aware of the rebate payments which will be required when using the proposed SAP Ariba procurement system? How has this or will this be communicated to suppliers?

10. How will S.A.P. Ariba improve Government of Jersey payment systems and what in- house systems can we expect it to replace?

1. What timescale do you have for the implementation of S.A.P. Ariba?
2. What impact will S.A.P. Ariba have on both the procurement and the payment of employees?

11. Please could you outline what an "S.A.P. centre of excellence" is, and what benefits it will provide the Government of Jersey?

1. Who will be responsible for this centre of excellence?
2. How has the Target Operating Model been amended to include the S.A.P. centre of excellence? How did you have to change the model to accommodate it?
3. How does this fit within Modernisation and Digital? Who will have responsibility within that function for the centre?
4. Will the centre of excellence offer opportunities for employees to improve their ability to use and work with S.A.P. technologies?
5. Would you please expand on SAP Ariba procurement system, including the benefits and expected changes?
6. Is the States (and its suppliers) aware of the rebate payments which will be required when using the proposed SAP Ariba procurement system? How has this or will this be communicated to suppliers?

12. Why was project accounting excluded from the scope of release one delivery for the core accounting modules (page 42 of transcript)?

Modernisation and Digital

13. Please could you outline what handover process you undertook when you first became Chief Operating Officer to understand the Government of Jersey's needs and requirements in regard to modernisation and digital?

Recommendations Tracker

14. You currently have 52 open recommendations and nine pending closure, how are you prioritising the implementation of these recommendations?

One of the outstanding recommendations is "The Treasurer and Chief Executive should establish clear parameters for the circumstances in which external resources will be acquired and the preferred sources for this, and establish clear targets for the long-term level of external resources brought in."

The recommendation was proposed to be closed in June 2021 but the reasons for closing it were not clear. What actions have been taken to update procedures around appointing interims and consultants and improve business cases?

15. Does the Recommendations Tracker form a part of how you manage the performance of officers and teams in your department and the department's performance as a whole?

1. Do you intend to undertake work to improve your responsiveness to both the Recommendations Tracker as a tool and the recommendations themselves?
2. Does the implementation of Recommendations factor into your reporting to the Risk and Audit Function?

16. What responsibility did you and officers in your department have for monitoring compliance with the Public Finances (Jersey) Law, and what support did you receive from other departments?
17. What new processes did you formulate with Treasury & Exchequer to ensure that responses and resource allocations were measured, monitored and reported on in line with the Public Finance Law and its Manual?

COVID-19

18. We know there has been a huge impact of COVID-19 response measures on departmental business as usual activities, including the secondment of Government staff to other departments to aid the response effort. Do you have a back-to-normal' recovery plan for your department?  

1. In respect of the secondment of Government staff to other departments to aid the response effort, how did you ensure disruptions to certain workstreams were prioritised in an objective and consistent way?  
2. What would you do differently next time?  

19. How have you monitored the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on departmental business as usual activities and the disruptions to it?

1. What tools were developed by your departments to monitor this?
2. How do you minimise the impact on services and key deliveries?
3. What decision making tools/approach did you use to decide on who should be seconded, and to where?
4. How did you compensate for staff seconded to other departments to aid the response effort?

20. Was any departmental authority changed during the Pandemic, including as a result of crisis management efforts, and if so, were they consistent with existing laws and regulations?  
21. Who is responsible for monitoring the performance of services established in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic within your department?

1. What and how have you documented lessons learnt?
2. How do you intend to incorporate lessons learned from the performance of these services into the wider performance of your department?

22. How were self-assessment frameworks and Key Performance Indicators used to ensure that key services continued to operate?

1. What worked well?
2. What would you do differently?

23. What role did your respective Ministers play in deciding on resource and staff reallocations? What level of consultation was provided to them?

a.  What level of responsibility as Chief Operating Officer, did you have on how staff should be reallocated and what resources could be taken from your departments and applied to the COVID-19 responses? How was this decision making formalised?

24. Can you update us on how your department has responded to the recommendations made by the C&AG on the response to the COVID-19 Pandemic? Have any recommendations been implemented?

a.  Have any changes made to the operations or working practices?

25. What thought has been given to future proofing' services?
26. In her report on Procurement and Supply Chain Management, the Comptroller and Auditor General found that the Government of Jersey used a "reasonable worst-case scenario" as the basis for procurement and supply decisions (page 3). What role did your department play in selecting this as the basis for these decisions?

1. What role did you and your department have in establishing the "close relationship" with the UK Department of Health and Social Care to ensure the supply of PPE? How did you track the development of this relationship over the course of the pandemic to further develop strong procurement relations in potential future crises?
2. Does your department have responsibility for investigating the procurement of some sub-standard PPE supplies, and if so, how will these findings and recommendations be presented and implemented?

27. The C&AG's report further notes that the letter of intent for oxygen supply was agreed before the exemption was singed off by the Group Director for Commercial Services, as required by the Public Finances Manual (page 33). Why did this happen?

a.  What steps have subsequently been taken to ensure that this was not repeated?

28. How did the Chief Operating Office, and primarily the Commercial Services function, work with Health and Community Services to understand its procurement needs during the pandemic?

1. What role did Commercial Services play in the procurement of the Nightingale Hospital and the creation of relevant business cases?
2. Regarding the equipment used to equip the Nightingale Hospital, which was never used, what's happening to that equipment?
3. What percentage can be repurposed?
4. There are some news stories that some equipment is not being stored properly, can you comment on that?

29. What responsibility did Commercial Services have in liaising with and working with organisations such as nursing homes and the Connect Me volunteers to procure and supply necessary equipment?

a.  How did Commercial Services compile and monitor the information it received regarding procurement needs, and how was this tracked for departmental performance?

30. What additional guidelines and working practices were implemented by Commercial Services to ensure that items procured in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic were of the required quality?

1. How were alternative options explored to identify new potential suppliers and avoid submitting comparatively uncompetitive bids against larger jurisdictions?
2. How will the practices of Commercial Services be internally reviewed to develop improved best practices and lessons learnt?
3. How did Commercial Services engage with legal advice to ensure the validity and appropriateness of contractual agreements in relation to procurement?

31. How have you measured, monitored, and reported on your performance, financial management (including value for money and cost benefit analyses) and impact on work programmes during the Covid-19 pandemic? What 3 things could be improved?

a.  What would you do to improve how your department communicated with the rest of the Government of Jersey and external stakeholders?

Automatic Voter Registration  

32. The Greffier of the States was the Senior Responsible Officer for the project, but the work was undertaken within the Chief Operating Office. How did the Greffier of the States communicate with the project team?

1. What knowledge did the Greffier of the States have of the problems facing the project prior to Summer 2020?
2. What site and influence did the project board have over the project itself, particularly given the strong number of representatives from Non-Ministerial bodies?
3. What lessons have been learnt regarding cross-departmental communication, particularly between Ministerial and Non-Ministerial bodies?

33. Why did the original budget considerably underestimate the budget provided by the then-incoming project manager in the Summer of 2020?

1. When did it first become apparent that the project could not be delivered within budget?
2. How will the project be internally reviewed to understand why the project was not able to be delivered by the 2022 Election?

34. What discussions have taken place to mitigate the number of potential registered voters lost because of the halting of this programme?

a.  What input will your department have on the Privileges and Procedures Committee's options paper?