The government council of the canton of Thurgau has passed a message for supplementary credits to the budget estimate for 2023 for the attention of the Grand Council. These also relate to various IT projects.
According to the government, the Supreme Court needs an additional credit of CHF 185,000 for the “Justitia 4.0” project. At the time of the budget phase, the actual costs could not have been estimated. From 2023, 2 external consultants were hired for the project on 2 days a week. The contractual relationship between the two external parties includes the tasks of the project manager until he takes up his post on May 1, 2023. They will then be used as external consultants for project support. The costs for 2023 would therefore be higher.
Additional credits totaling CHF 550,000 are needed in the cantonal office for IT. According to the embassy, these are primarily expenses for the Terris specialist application for managing land register groups and for a functional adjustment of the new personnel and wage solution Abacus. At Terris, there are implementation costs that were budgeted for in the investment calculation. With the planned transfer of the Terris product to eOperations Switzerland, the investment calculation should not be further burdened. With the supplementary loan, the budget of the investment account is to be transferred to the income statement.
Control software from 1993 is a security risk
Finally, the highest amount of CHF 1,437,000 is earmarked for the project “New application for property taxes of the cantonal tax administration” and GST replacement. As the government council emphasizes, this is not about additional expenditure, but about a postponement of the project work. The property loan applied for in 2024 will then be reduced by the amount brought forward to 2023.
The currently used GST software from 1993 is increasingly developing into a risk factor for the operational security of the cantonal administration’s software landscape. In December 2022, the government council therefore issued a project order for a preliminary project for a new property tax application with the resulting investment costs of around CHF 5.5 million.
Start software replacement immediately
The tax authorities have succeeded “in bringing an experienced partner on board with the company Ingtes in order to implement a future-proof solution for the GST software”. The declared goal is to complete the software by the end of 2024 and to put it into operation from January 2025. “Completion of the software project by January 1, 2025 is extremely ambitious due to the complexity of the matter, which is why the start of implementation is preferable,” writes the government.
Due to an order that has been postponed elsewhere, Ingtes can guarantee the canton of Thurgau a time window until the end of 2024 for the necessary development work, “which represents a great opportunity due to the risks mentioned”. Otherwise Ingtes “due to long-term full order books will no longer be able to provide capacities for the canton of Thurgau for several years”. For reasons of liquidity, the company could not work until the end of 2023 without being paid.
There is therefore an urgent need for action and the replacement of the GST software must be started immediately. “Fortunately, the significant risks can thus be reduced earlier than planned,” said the government councilor.
2023-05-15 15:55:45
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