The tip line works

Just after publicly launching in October, the Taxpayers' Union received an anonymous tip off that there was a massive cost overrun of a mismanaged IT project jointly commissioned by DoC and Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).  The National Property and Land Information System (“NaPALIS”) had allegedly been a failure, with DoC still picking up the pieces 18 months after the project was scheduled to be complete.

This morning a DoC official hand delivered the response to the requests for information by the Taxpayers' Union. We understand that the Director General will be making a public statement this afternoon.

The material includes two independent reports that are damning of DoC.  They blame mismanagement and ineffective governance for the project’s failure. It appears that LINZ has walked away from the project and has left DoC to pick up the pieces.

We're still reviewing the material, but to summaries one of the independent reviews of the project (conducted by Deloitte), it found:

• ineffective governance;
• inadequate business ownership;
• lack of shared vision and shared outcome by DoC and LINZ for NaPALIS;
• the NaPALIS Programme’s failure to deliver benefits to DoC;
• lack of effective and inclusive requirements and development phase;
• ineffective work on cultural alignment and change management between DoC and LINZ;
• personality clashes between the DoC and LINZ;
• an “us and them” approach -the report says:
• “The Programme Manager was seen to be working only for LINZ most of the time, leaving DoC to flounder”;
• lack of focus by the Programme Manager on achieving a join outcome;
• lack of accountability by the Programme Manager;
• ineffective vendor management; and
• lack of independent quality assurance.

Update:

The NZ Herald have now picked up the story. Our media release is copied below.

MEDIA RELEASE

TAXPAYERS’ UNION UNCOVER MASSIVE I.T. SCREW UP WITHIN DOC

18 DECEMBER 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Taxpayers’ Union has uncovered an IT screw up within the Department of Conservation as a result of a tip-off to taxpayers.org.nz relating to DoC’s National Property and Land Information System (“NaPALIS”).

Two independent reports by accountancy firm Deloitte are damning of DoC. They blame mismanagement and ineffective governance for the project’s failure. NaPALIS was joint project between DoC and Land Information New Zealand. Despite DoC allocating over $2 million in additional funding, the system is still not fully operational. The IT project has cost taxpayers over $6 million and LINZ appear to be leaving it to DoC to fix up the mess.

“This is DoC’s very own Novopay,” says Jordan Williams, Executive Director of theTaxpayers’ Union. “The two independent reviews show how mismanaged the project was from day one. It appears that LINZ have now walked away from the project and left DoC with a system which isn’t up to the replacing the old one.”

“The warning bells were ringing from the start. There needs to be accountability for the taxpayers’ money that has been wasted on a computer system that doesn’t work.”

“DoC’s internal ‘closure report’ skims over the two damning Deloitte reports. It suggests that no lessons have been learned.”

“While the Taxpayers’ Union is troubled by what has been uncovered, at least the public can now see how badly the project was mismanaged by DoC. The Taxpayers’ Unionbegan researching the issue after an anonymous tip off at taxpayers.org.nz.”

The information and reports by Deloitte released by DoC to the Taxpayers' Union are available at www.taxpayers.org.nz.

Q & A

What is the NaPALIS Programme?
The NaPALIS Programme and resulting new Land Management Information System was to bring together 9 business groups across LINZ and DoC to create a single, shared ‘source of the truth’ for over 40% of New Zealand’s Land totaling over $6 billion in value.
 
When was NaPALIS expected to go live?
NAPALIS was scheduled to go live in February 2012. In March 2012, this was revised to May 2012. It went ‘partially operational’ in September 2012. For DoC, the system is still not operational.

How much did the programme cost and is it finished?
The programme is now 18 months overdue and it still doesn’t work. To fix the bugs, DoC and LINZ initially increased the budget by $588,967 to $6,194,134. It appears that LINZ has now walked away from the project leaving DoC to allocate another $2 million to complete it.

What’s the latest $2 million for?
Despite the extra spending by DoC and LINZ, NaPALIS is still only partially operational.  The new $2 million allocated is to address (among other things):

• work to resolve the majority of system defects necessary to make NaPALIS operational;
• including the backlog of necessary changes that were not part of the initial data migration;
• completing a technical review and considering design solutions;
• resolving essential architecture issues; and
• process development and system changes relating to Treaty of Waitangi matters.

• the role and authority of the NaPALIS was being “undermined”;
• there was no external member of the Steering Committee;
• there were issues of scope; and
• that delays were persistent.

• “There was a lack of clarity around business ownership with DoC and LINZ”
• “The Programme did not have a consistent approach to Independent Quality Assurance (‘IQA’) from the outset.”

• ineffective governance;
• inadequate business ownership;
• lack of shared vision and shared outcome by DoC and LINZ for NaPALIS;
• the NaPALIS Programme’s failure to deliver benefits to DoC;
• lack of effective and inclusive requirements and development phase;
• ineffective work on cultural alignment and change management between DoC and LINZ;
• personality clashes between the DoC and LINZ;
• an “us and them” approach - the report says:
• “The Programme Manager was seen to be working only for LINZ most of the time, leaving DoC to flounder”;
• lack of focus by the Programme Manager on achieving a joint outcome;
• lack of accountability by the Programme Manager;
• ineffective vendor management; and
• lack of independent quality assurance.

• NaPALIS went live in September 2012 after a number of delays.  It was implemented over budget and several months after it was expected to be implemented.  We believe that there was potential to deliver a join successful outcome.  However, ineffective governance and management of the NaPALIS Programme has meant that a successful outcome has not been delivered forboth organisations. LINZ are using the new tools and processes that NaPALIS provides, whilst DoC do not feel able to use these new tools and processes effectively.  DoC are indicating that another Programme of work is required costing several hundred thousand dollars to get NaPALIS to a point where it will meet their business needs.”
• “We do not believe that the Programme was set up well from the outset and that the Governance and Programme/Project Management controls that were put in place fell short of good practice.

Can the public access the material?
We’ve uploaded the information released by DoC under the Official Information Act is copied below.

ENDS 

DoC's reponse to Taxpayers' Union requests on NaPALIS