The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Government urged to shut down ‘unfixable’ IT system
Frustration boils over at NFUS as leader calls for action
Farming leaders’ patience with the failure of the Scottish Government’s IT system to deliver support payments finally ran out yesterday, with a top-level call for it to be shut down and replaced.
NFU Scotland (NFUS) delivered an ultimatum to thegovernment, to take immediate steps to overcome the failures of the flawed £180million system or put yet another loan scheme in place to cover 2016’s Less Favoured Areas (LFASS) payments which are taking even longer to be delivered than last year.
Plain- speaking union president Andrew McCornick described the threeyear-old computer system as unfixable and called on the government to “bite the bullet” and repeat the action it took when NHS Scotland and Police Scot- land experienced IT failures, by seeking refunds on the contract then switching off the systems.
The Scottish Government has previously bypassed the IT system to inject support into farming through loans when it became clear the computer would fail to meet deadlines and the rural economy was grinding to a halt. A year ago a loan scheme delivered £ 55million of LFASS support to 11,000 farmers and crofters. In the absence of any clear timetable for paying this year’s funds the union says Scottish Government must now repeat the action.
Mr McCornick said: “Last year, the Basic Payment and Greening support came in two parts. This year, the national loan scheme in November was a valuable stimulus and a further 10% is arriving unannounced in accounts now. However, that means the IT system is now delivering these payments in full over three stages. That additional complexity is a step backwards, not forwards.
“For many of our hill farmers and crofters, support through LFASS is more valuable to them than basic support and the £65.5million scheme injects life into the most remote and vulnerable rural communities.”
Mr McCornick said that by this time last year, almost all those eligible had received 90% of their LFASS payment via a loan.
He added: “But even here, the system is letting people down and a small number of producers are still waiting for either part or all of that 2015 payment. This year, there is no clear timetable when the system will be able to deliver LFASS, and that is unacceptable. A new LFASS loan is a priority.”
Shadow rural spokesman Peter Chapman said the government needed to provide certainty on when outstanding payments would be made. He also questioned whether the IT system would ever be able to deliver.
He added: “The only way forward may be a completely new system, but this programme has been five years in the making and starting from scratch is therefore no easy option.”
Earlier in the day in his online blog, Mr McCornick likened persevering with the IT system to “flogging a dead horse”.
Last night Rural Secretary Fergus Ewing said he understood the NFUS leader's frustration but added he was not sure that the solution rested with discontinuing the IT scheme. “That would in all likelihood cause further delay and problems," he said.
Mr Ewing added that 2016 BPS/Greening payments had begun this week and said he was considering how to address issues relating to LFASS payments.
“No timetable when the system will be able to deliver”