Mr. Dave Walsh:

Since 2019 and the last time I appeared before the committee, we have concluded phase 1, the development piece. I will explain.

In 2019, very little development work was done because the system was operating. We were maintaining and managing it, rather than doing major development work. That is why the imbalance may be between the development and the consultancy fees.

In 2020, we altered track in that we did not procure an external firm to continue the design but brought it in-house. We procured, through the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, frameworks, four in-house developers who are currently working with our staff and teams to further design and refine the system to build in better business process improvements and make it more efficient, not only for ourselves but also for the users. Ultimately, when this phase is done towards the end of 2022, we will have upskilled a number of our staff to take over the programme management, business analysis and testing. Our ultimate aim is to be as self-sufficient as we can and to maintain and adapt the system into the future.