Renegotiation of States IT contract under way

The deal with Agilisys is the most expensive contract the States of Guernsey has signed in recent history

Guernsey's States has started negotiations with IT provider Agilisys on changes to its £200m contract with the company.

In 2019, the company signed a contract with the States of Guernsey to improve the way it uses IT, the biggest deal the States has signed in the last decade.

Head of the public service, Mark De Garis, said he wanted to improve "accountability" around the contract and a report from the Scrutiny Management Committee looking at the deal is due later in 2024.

The company has been criticised following a number of outages across States IT systems.

On Wednesday, the States of Guernsey website was down because of a cyber-attack.

In 2023, a review by PwC found a failure of back-up systems and a reliance on out-of-date kit were behind a number of IT outages suffered by the States.

The report also recommended a review of the contract with Agilisys.

Mr De Garis admitted there was "some way to go" when it came to improving States IT

Mr De Garis said "the contract is shortly into its fifth year, halfway through so Agilisys and the States of Guernsey want to fine tune different elements.

"We're in active discussions with Agilisys to change and improve it, especially around accountability.

"We've still got some way to go improving our IT, but we are in much better shape than we were two or three years ago."

The BBC has approached Agilisys for comment.