No inquiry into Ministry’s Covid-19 Immunisation Register procurement

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has decided not to investigate the Ministry of Health’s procurement of a Covid-19 Immunisation Register (CIR) and National Immunisation Solution (NIS).

An OAG report says more than $9.5 million is expected to be spent externally on building the CIR by the end of this year.

It also says the Ministry expects to leverage work done on the CIR to develop the NIS and does not expect to spend the full $38 million approved by Joint Ministers to develop it.

The Office of the Auditor General has published a response to Orion Health chief executive Ian McCrae following his request for a review of the Ministry’s procurement processes in relation to the new CIR and NIS.

McCrae’s concerns were that Covid-19 was used to circumvent proper procurement processes, that the reported $38 million cost of the new system was “scandalous” and the vendors awarded the contract do not have experience dealing with health information.

Orion Health provides the current National Immunisation Register (NIR), which is being replaced by the NIS.

This can only be accessed through the Connected Health IT network, which many community based vaccinators do not have access to. The Ministry also said it would not enable people to access their immunisation status.

“In the Ministry’s view, the NIR no longer meets the needs of a contemporary immunisation system, and lacked the functionality needed to meet Covid-19 vaccination requirements,” the letter says.

Deloitte (using Salesforce, Mulesoft and AWS) was awarded a contract to develop a Screening Solution platform in 2017 and the Ministry stated at the time that the successful solution could be used for other population based health requirements, such as immunisation.

Having determined that a new immunisation solution was needed, the Ministry contracted Deloitte to deliver the CIR using the screening platform.

“The Ministry also approached Orion to see if it could meet the Ministry’s requirements. Orion advised the Ministry in writing that it could not meet the requirements in the time frames specified,” the letter says.

In his response, the Auditor General says this was done as an emergency procurement under the Government Procurement Rules and because the Ministry was working under urgency, it was allowed to document approval for this approach after the procurement had been completed and work had started.

“Because the Covid-19 functionality within the Immunisation Solution was critical to the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, the Ministry decided that using an open competitive process to select a delivery partner was not feasible.”

The letter says around $6 million had been spent externally on the CIR up to 31 July 2021 and another $3.5 million was forecast to be spent by the end of this year.

“Most of the $38 million contingency Cabinet approved in July and October 2020 for a new, modern National Immunisation Solution, remains available for that purpose. Work is ongoing, with further procurement still to occur.”

Going forward, the Ministry should “document how any procurement it carries out (including the next stages of the Immunisation Solution development, cervical screening, and breast screening) aligns with the Government Procurement Rules.”

The AG says the Ministry should also continue to assess whether it is receiving value for money in its investment in screening and immunisation solutions.

“We expect the Ministry to consider other commercial options and carry out case-by-case analysis of any new uses of the Salesforce platform, as it did with the Covid-19 Immunisation Register,” the letter says.

It adds that the OAG has not explored McCrae’s suggestion that the NIR could have had a simple schedule upgrade to meet the Ministry’s Covid-19 requirements or independently analysed the costs incurred.

McCrae says he finds it hard to believe that the OAG believes there isn’t anything worth investigating.

“Unfortunately and disappointingly, New Zealand just doesn’t have anything close to the procurement rigour that we see in most other developed nations,” he says.

“To assist the OAG we also provided a detailed 19-page statement of facts, much of which the OAG didn’t bother responding to. They met and spoke with MoH officials, but never bothered contacting us to discuss anything.”

He says the OAG’s letter raises new issues as it confirms that Deloitte was working on a solution when Orion Health was asked to respond in writing to the Ministry’s immunisation requirements.

He also questioned the assumption that the NIR was ‘out of date’ saying Orion Health had “pleaded with the Ministry for many years to increase the functionality and usability of the register.

“What my team and I experienced was not a full procurement process. It’s a Wellington whitewash, that shows New Zealand Ministries do not need to follow their own procurement rules,” McCrae says.

Darren Douglass, acting deputy director-general, data and digital, Ministry of Health, says the Ministry welcomes publication of the OAG’s findings.

“We work with a number of vendors and suppliers to deliver a wide range of tools and systems to help keep New Zealanders healthy, and we value these good relationships with our industry partners,” he says.

“We have confidence in our procurement processes, and will read the OAG findings with interest.”

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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