Agilisys defends its record on failed Guernsey IT system

Wednesday, 22 April 2026 09:30

IT provider says the £21M failure was not down to delivery issues alone.

A report by the Head of Guernsey's Public Service released yesterday (21 April) investigated the failure of the MyGov IT transformation that ended up costing the taxpayer £21M.

The majority, some £16.2M was paid to Agilisys.

Boley Smillie blamed process, project drift, ever growing complexity and weak financial control, but did not name names and said 'there was no evidence of intentional wrongdoing.'

Agilisys, who the States hired as their outsourced IT supplier on a multi-million pound contract over 10 years, also came in for criticism.

Their progress reports were 'polished and presented to a high standard but this masked underlying issues.'

A spokesperson for the IT firm says failure was not down to its delivery alone and it does not accept all the findings and 'characterisations' in the report.

“MyGov was a complex programme delivered over several years in partnership with the States of Guernsey, including during the Covid period. "

"Decisions on scope, governance, funding, reporting, and implementation ultimately rested with the States as the contracting authority and public body.

"We also note that it is standard practice for key suppliers to be part of Programme governance subject to the leadership role of the States of Guernsey.

“We would, finally, caution against conflating the issues examined in this report with the termination of Agilisys’s contract in 2025.

"Considering that process, our ability to comment further is necessarily limited.

“Our team in Guernsey worked with professionalism and commitment throughout, and we remain proud of their contribution.”

Boley Smilie says the internal investigation found some similar issues in other States projects and in response they are making significant leadership, governance and process changes to ensure that the same problems do not arise again.