The statements by Wendy Cumming of the GGCA in respect of the ITLD dispute are misleading, untrue and wholly irresponsible.
Wendy Cumming has repeatedly stated that Government is engaged in an “insidious campaign to dismantle the ITLD Department” – This is totally untrue – If anyone should know that the compliment of the ITLD Department has grown by more than 100% since 2011, it is Wendy Cumming. The existing compliment of 31 is more than double the 15 they had in 2011. How can the GGCA make such outrageous and inaccurate statements when Government has demonstrated the very opposite?
There is no desire or campaign to dismantle the ITLD Department. All policy decisions taken in respect of this Department are taken in consultation with, on the advice of and in agreement with the Head of the ITLD Department, its Director. How can the GGCA possibly question policy decisions which have been agreed by the Head of the Department, and in the knowledge of other senior managers? This has been explained to the GGCA and yet they persist with making these statements.
On her GBC Interview Wendy Cumming was asked on the decision taken to move the server to the Cloud; “So ITLD have been excluded from that process completely?” Wendy Cumming answered: “Yes they have”.
That is simply not true. ITLD were not excluded, on the contrary they were consulted over 6 months ago and they agreed and welcomed the decision to do this as they understood it would provide a better service to the public. Indeed, ITLD have themselves already moved two of their own servers onto the Cloud in exactly the same way.
ITLD play a critical role in Governments infrastructure and provide a complete service to all Government Departments including eServices. Without ITLD these services cannot be made available to the public.
Mrs Cumming also stated that this should have gone through a “procurement process as Digital Services had contracted a third party” to provide this service. This is not true and Wendy Cummings knows this is not true as she has been informed and ITLD are fully aware that there is no third party as the service providers are themselves hosting the service on the world leading AWS (Amazon Web Services) platform. What procurement process was followed when other servers were moved to the Cloud?
Mrs Cumming further stated that ITLD have been “disenfranchised and disempowered” notwithstanding that she knows that the Director of ITLD is involved in all decisions relating to his Department including in respect of the Cyber Security issue and the Server issue, both of which the Director agreed with. The statement is not true.
Mrs Cumming also commented that the dispute had “an easy solution” which was for ITLD to manage and administer these servers instead of Digital Services. Mrs Cumming knows full well that these servers will not be managed or administered by Digital Services, and she has been informed of this in writing.
It is unfortunate that the GGCA, who have significant GGCA members within the Digital Services team, should seek to divide these teams all of whom should be working closely together to provide better services to the community for the benefit of all. It is also unfortunate that industrial action has been stepped up based on untruths or misinformation when a second meeting has been arranged for the 19th September to continue these discussions.
Government is hopeful that in the meeting on the 19th September a resolution can be found to both the Cyber Security and Server issue. These are matters which we wish to resolve in order to operate more efficiently and improve the performance of the services offered by both ITLD and eServices working together.
ENDS
