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Apr 15 - GGCA Says Minister Isola “Plans To Break The ITLD”

The GGCA has said that Minister Isola has plans to “break” the Information Technology and Logistics Department (ITLD) and that these plans have been in motion since January 2017, when the first transfer of an ITLD officer to the Digital Services Team was effected, “in breach of the ITLD Revised Agreement.”

A statement continued: “This is the point at which the first GGCA request for consultation was made, with the GGCA President asking Minister Isola (via email dated 12th January 2017) “that the GGCA be present, involved and consulted in any future changes which may affect the department and/or its staff. To clarify, members have requested to be accompanied by union representatives in any future meetings in the context of said changes or restructure.”

“On the 6th February 2017, Minister Isola informed the GGCA President via e-mail that he was not aware of any major organisational changes and that this information was “wholly inaccurate”. This was a barefaced lie, as a further 3 ITLD officers were later transferred out of ITLD with no consultation with the GGCA.

“This was followed by a fateful meeting on the 8th March 2018, convened by Minister Isola for the ITLD, GHA IT Department and the Treasury IT Section. The members of ITLD were denied trade union representation at this meeting, as the GGCA President was not allowed to attend. At this meeting, Minister Isola mentioned the GGCA President’s name in a mocking manner when addressing the Chief Secretary. He also threatened all the officers present, drawing an analogue between E-Government and a moving train and saying that anyone presenting an obstacle to E-Government would be moved aside so that the ‘train’ could carry on and that ”No one [would] stop the train”. At the end of the meeting, the officers were told to “go back to the rain”.

“This led to the GGCA President sending a lengthy, detailed letter to the Chief Minister on the 18th April 2018, complaining about the lack of consultation and Minister Isola’s actions, as well as many other issues. In this letter it was clearly highlighted that:

“At present the ITLD’s main concern remains that of the apparent creation of another IT Department, incorporating both civil and public servants, with no clear agreement as to how this department will function and whether it is envisaged that an Authority, Agency or other entity will be created.”

“There was no response to this letter, which led to a declaration of dispute on the 5th July 2018. Following a meeting with the Chief Minister, it was agreed that no further transfers out of ITLD would be arranged and that regular meetings would be held with an ITLD representative team and the official side, to avoid further conflict and escalations. These meetings never happened.

“This takes us to the 9th April 2019, when a circular was sent out to Heads of Department, Chief Executives, Authorities and Agencies regarding the creation of a Digital Services Authority. The circular sets out “as a matter of Cabinet policy, that all IT related issues” and in particular any purchases of IT goods or services over £2,500 must be referred to the Digital Services Authority. At this point, the ITLD contacted the GGCA for an emergency meeting.

“It was only when the GGCA raised concerns about the circular, that Minister Isola contacted the ITLD Head of Department to inform him that both he and the Deputy Head of Department were to form part of the Digital Services Authority. Clearly, they were not meant to be included and were only added in response to union pressure. This begs the question – what about the GHA IT Department and the Treasury IT section?

“It also raises very serious concerns about the running of IT systems. What if there is a sudden crisis relating to IT security, such as hacking or a virus? Can senior management not deal with these problems quickly and effectively (in many instances, relating to programs developed by staff in these departments) without referring to the Digital Services Authority (composed of God-Knows-Who?) Isn’t this massively inefficient and in some cases downright dangerous when considering GHA IT systems in particular? Can we afford to delay IT action when some systems may support healthcare? As there has been no union consultation, the GGCA has had no reassurances in relation to these matters. Presumably this doesn’t worry the GOG, as failures of Government policy can always be blamed on civil and public servants, who are bound to secrecy by the Official Secrets Act and are therefore sitting ducks.

“In his interview for Newswatch yesterday, Minister Isola left out both the context and the direction of travel of the plans he himself has confirmed.

“As is clearly seen from the events from January 2017 to date, the context of the ITLD dispute is more than 2 years of digital services being planned and executed by an external contractor and ITLD staff taken out of the department, presenting their purchases and designs as a fait accompli and undermining the role of the directors of the GOG IT departments. Running said project directly from the ministry, headed by ministerial staff.

“The direction is a future amalgamation of the various IT departments according to a plan already prepared at the ministry by non IT staff and junior staff pulled from ITLD, without any involvement of the directors of any of the GOG IT departments. Again, this completely undermines the roles of ITLD management, of GHA IT management and the manager of the Treasury IT Section.

“To call Brexit an inopportune time for staff to exercise their rights to defend themselves from the actions of the government is at the very least disingenuous, as they are the ones timing the issues by creating them in the first place and the department is simply reacting and within its rights to do so, and was fully willing to delay any action and talk if the GOG had been willing to suspend the circular pending discussions. Yet Government declined to do so.

“The government statement therefore misrepresents the full picture and lies by omission.”

The Government reply is here: https://www.yourgibraltartv.com/politics/18967-apr-15-government-rejects-ggca-statement

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