'Do as we fund, not as we do' sends 'very poor reputational signal' says damning report
The UK Treasury's reluctance to fully commit to a cross-government £1.15 billion shared service strategy it has funded risks making the whole effort "potentially unworkable," the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has warned. HM Treasury's (HMT) decision in June to delay joining Matrix - one of five clusters the government hopes will save £4.3 billion by moving 17 departments and 300 arm's-length bodies onto shared ERP and HR systems - sends "a very poor reputational signal to the rest of the project," the House of Commons spending watchdog said.Under Matrix, the UK administration plans to support the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Cabinet Office, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Business and Trade, Attorney General's Office, Department for Education (DfE), Department of Health and Social Care, as well as HMT - with Workday cloud-based finance and HR software.
In a letter to Parliament's PAC last month, HMT confirmed it would not commit to whether it was prepared to move off its existing Oracle Fusion SaaS finance and HR system until December, despite funding the program for five years. The PAC has now slammed HMT's decision.
