‘More than half of the Tax and Customs Administration’s IT systems are outdated’
The Court of Audit has established that more than half of the IT systems at the Tax and Customs Administration are outdated. The entire central government is also not doing well in the area of information security, for example. The number of ICT deficiencies has also increased.
The Court of Audit states that the Tax and Customs Administration is making progress in modernizing its IT systems, but that the service is nevertheless confronted with more and more outdated IT systems. According to the controlling body, the pace of modernization is not high enough, making it increasingly difficult for the tax authorities to process the consequences of new tax legislation and to provide services to companies and citizens. In addition, according to the Court of Audit, there will be a shortage of IT staff in the coming years. This means that it is uncertain whether the modernization of the systems can take place at the planned pace in the coming years.
As more than half of the Tax and Customs Administration’s systems are outdated, they are difficult to adapt and expensive to maintain, according to the Court of Audit. The sales tax system, which dates back to 1982, is cited as an example. Although this ICT system runs without major disruptions, it is not possible to adjust the tax percentages in this system due to its age. New sales tax legislation requires a new system and, according to the Court of Audit, it takes five years to build such a system. This means that sales tax rates cannot change in the coming years.
The controlling institution, which investigates whether the central government is handling public money properly, also states that the central government still does not have information security in order. For example, there are eleven government organizations where information security has deteriorated compared to a year earlier. According to the court, this means that these organizations have not implemented all mandatory security measures.
The Court of Audit also reports that it is not sufficiently clear to parliament how many systems are outdated and can therefore cause problems in the provision of services to businesses and citizens. This is related to the fact that parliament does receive information about new ICT projects, but does not receive an overview of the quality and maintenance of existing ICT systems. The latter category makes up 75 percent of government spending on ICT, which amounted to 2.6 billion euros in 2017. On this point, the Court of Audit believes that the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations should provide parliament with more and better information.
Earlier, the ICT Verification Office was also very critical in its annual report, which was presented in March and will be discussed in the House of Representatives on Thursday. In it, the organization states that many central government ICT projects are unnecessarily or unnecessarily large, the ministries lack knowledge and often expensive external people are hired. An analysis of the problems is also often lacking, even though the systems are already being replaced. The ICT Verification Office, which was established in 2015, states that the aim of having sufficient expertise within the departments by 2020 will not be achieved. According to Trouw, the continued existence of the ICT Testing Office is not guaranteed because the departments do not always welcome criticism.