Deputies told that costs have risen from £17.3M to £22.2M. The rise is partly blamed on the use of external experts.

The health committee president, deputy Al Brouard, updated the Assembly on the overspend:

"From the most recent review it is clear that it will take longer and it will cost more, should the scope of works remain unchanged.

The current budget for the programme is £17.3M. This will now need to increase to around £22.2M."

He described the IT programme as complex and drew a comparison with Phase 2 of the hospital building upgrade, which is around £30M over budget.

He said the roll out of the first stage of the system will be delayed until June 2025, with the second one year later.

Deputy Brouard blames £1.8M of the uplift in costs on the use of external consultants:

"We have been unsuccessful in attracting the staff with the requisite skills and experience and hence we have had to employ those in private consultancies to ensure the successful completion of the programme."

"We now find ourselves in a difficult position, having made the decision to replace the old system which will not be fully supported in the future. Being sub scale we have little choice but to continue with the modernisation. The committee has looked at alternatives but non are palatable."

Deputy Adrian Gabriel questioned the ability of the States to handle large spending projects:

"I'm absolutely astounded and flabbergasted that we haven't got control of a large project. Why haven't we got control on capital projects?"

Deputy Peter Ferbrache agreed:

"It's probably going to be six, seven or eight million by the time it's finished. We'll find when we open the envelope there's probably another bill to pay. We need to get a grip."

"We've got to take active steps to get money in because we're going to have bills to pay."

Earlier, deputy Lyndon Trott told the Assembly that the budget reserve for the year had been exhausted:

"2024 is proving to be a difficult year financially, and that is an understatement." 

"There has been a material downward adjustment required to both the 2023 and 2024 interim assessments for one bank. This has had a combined material negative impact on States' finances on the 2024 position of nearly £16M. This could not have been reasonably foreseen."