In the first week of November, the Federal Cabinet decided to completely reorganize one of its most expensive digital projects. It is a rescue plan, an emergency operation: because the IT modernization of the federal authorities started in 2015 was completely out of control; instead of the originally planned sum of less than one billion euros, it should suddenly cost 3.5 billion euros. The Budget Committee then blocked most of the funds and demanded a fundamental reorganization.
More in the SPIEGEL
Issue 47/2019
In the service of the truth
From Watergate to Trump - power and tragedy of whistleblowersDigital Edition | Printed issues | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
In the mammoth project, among other things, all computer workstations in federal agencies to be modernized and brought to a single state.
But even the new concept adopted now does not convince everyone. The Federal Court of Auditors, on whose drastic complaints the emergency operation is significantly reduced, also dissects the rescue plan in centralized terms in a confidential report from the end of October.
In particular, the examiners criticize the fact that the tasks of the previous overall project management in the Ministry of the Interior are now being "distributed in five places". This threatened "voting problems and undesirable developments". It was "not convinced" that the modernization could thus actually be implemented as promised by the federal government "more stringent" and "more goal-oriented". Instead, the "mega-project" needed a higher-level, assertive organizational unit that could "steer the project in a uniform and cross-departmental manner".
Project "without important safety conditions"
A large part of their investigation of the new plans, the auditors dedicated to IT security - in times of state-run cyber attacks against federal institutions particularly sensitive. The preamble to the reorganization states that the first objective is to ensure the security of federal systems.
All the more surprising is what the auditors say: The project "has been running for four years without important safety-related conditions," they state. Thus, the Federal Government would miss its "goal of preserving IT security and strengthening it in terms of increasing networking and attacks". That was not appropriate and had to be changed "swiftly" and "cooperatively".
The examiners even set a deadline: By 30 June of the coming year, the government should submit an appropriate directive. They also recommend naming an IT security officer.
Criticism of the technology service provider
The auditors also seem to have considerable doubts about the decision to only continue working with a leading technology service provider, the ITZBund, a technology service provider based at the Ministry of Finance and already responsible for various other federal digital projects.
On the one hand, the Court found "various information security deficiencies" during a test there last year. In addition, a survey among the previous public agency customers of the technology service provider had a rather moderate satisfaction. Among other things, they complained about "weak points" such as "long reaction times, unclear responsibilities" and "intransparent pricing".
In fact, even before the complete takeover of the particularly complex migration of the computer centers, the ITZB apparently operates hard on the load limit. Of the 3054 or so posts, the agency had 393 unmanned at the beginning of July.
Replanning reaches "still no stable, stable state"
In view of this mixed situation, the Court of Auditors therefore sees in terms of time planning black. Originally, the complete update of the federal IT should be completed by 2025. The government adheres to this plan, complain the auditors, "although it is no longer to be met". Even with the replanning, the major project "has not reached a stable, stable state."
This is bad news not only for civil servants and administrative workers waiting for up-to-date computer workstations and uniform digital processes. The disaster surrounding the modernization of federal IT will also have a direct impact on citizens, fears the budget expert on the left, Victor Perli. "The Federal Chancellor's full-bodied announcement that all administrative services will also be available online by the end of 2022 will not be upheld in the face of this chaos - taxpayers may pay for the additional costs".
In its clean-up session on the federal budget, the Committee on Budgets largely followed the new recommendations of the auditors during the night of Friday and called on the Federal Government to undertake extensive follow-up work. With many issues to be resolved, housekeepers have also decided that much of the funding for IT modernization remains blocked.
This topic comes from the new SPIEGEL magazine - available at the kiosk from Saturday morning and every Friday at SPIEGEL + and in the digital magazine edition.
What is in the new SPIEGEL and what stories you find at SPIEGEL +, you will also learn in our free policy newsletter DIE LAGE, which appears six times a week - compact, analytical, opinionated, written by the political minds of the editorial.