Exclusive – council’s report claims ‘all fine’ over multi million pound IT project but huge problem revealed by insiders
Birmingham City Council House(Image: Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live)
Insiders have revealed a vital multi-million pound IT project that triggered Birmingham City Council’s bankruptcy is ‘in trouble’ – contrary to a council document claiming all is well.
A report will inform the council’s cabinet that the massive project’s re-implementation is on target for a go-live next April, with no major complications or hold-ups.
But whistleblowers told us that it is not correct. They have revealed that a crucial part of the scheme has been dogged by issues and delays.
The council has now confirmed that it is the case.
READ MORE: Ban killer and hit-and-run drivers for life – a BirminghamLive campaign
The income management system is the problem area – it’s a system that ensures that the thousands of payments in and out of the council every week match up with bank records.
It acts as an early warning of fraud and is a critical part of accounting and auditing.
Worried insiders fear delays in finishing the bank reconciliation work will impact the overall project, which has now racked up a bill of £171 million. “It’s a mess,” said one.
BirminghamLive was contacted amid claims that attempts to raise the alarm internally about the scheme’s progress and to flag questions around ‘weak’ oversight had been rebuffed.
The council has now admitted that the IMS part of the project is indeed behind schedule and but will not give a new date for its completion.
It said the report due to be discussed by the cabinet today (September 9) – which gives the scheme a clean bill of health – was written before the problems emerged and that this would have been shared with members as soon as part of the reporting arrangements.
There has been no attempt to mislead or hide, the council said.
The council also said the overarching Oracle programme ‘remains on track for its April 2026 go-live, supported by robust governance and oversight arrangements to ensure the right outcomes for the council.’
Ban killer and hit and run drivers for life – a Birmingham Live campaign
Grieving families and road safety campaigners are sick of seeing drivers who commit the worst atrocities on our roads get a second chance to get behind the wheel.
We say a lifetime ban – closely monitored and with an automatic prison term for breaking it – is the only just way forward to keep us safe. Driving is a privilege, not a right.
We call on the Sentencing Council and the Ministry of Justice to ban for life the motorists who maim or kill through reckless driving.
Hit-and-run cowards who leave their victims dying or hurt on the roadside should also face a lifetime ban.
Back our call.
Read all about our plea to Government here.
The original Oracle system was implicated heavily in the council getting into financial distress in 2023 and the appointment of external commissioners.
Originally meant to cost no more than £20m to buy and integrate into the council’s network as part of a switch to a cloud-based finance and HR system, it ran into all sorts of problems and then went ‘live’ despite multiple red flags.
That caused a meltdown which the council has been battling to put right since. It has been unable to sign off its accounts for three years as a result.
Last year, it was decided to reimplement the system from scratch.
The total costs incurred so far have topped £170 million.
One insider, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were real concerns about the way the project was being overseen, with a lack of expert knowledge among the senior councillors who provide scrutiny.
Given the project’s sorry history, it was concerning that delays were still being brushed aside as minor issues, they said.
The council today denied any attempt to mislead or hide information about the delays to the IMS from councillors and said it took any staff concerns seriously, with policies and procedures in place for concerns to be raised.
“Regular sessions with staff take place to ensure feedback and concerns are listened to. The programme operates on the basis of building trust at all levels of the council through transparency and action.”
They also said that updates to the timelines of all key parts of the Oracle scheme were regularly shared with councillors through written updates to cabinet, finance and scrutiny committee and the audit committee, and via an oversight board, which meets monthly.
We understand the board does not include opposition councillors.
Should killer drivers face life imprisonment?
Should killer drivers face life imprisonment?
Questions have been raised about the ability of Cabinet members to oversee and scrutinise such a complex IT project. Cllr Saima Suleman chairs the oversight board and oversees Oracle.
In further response to our inquiries, the council added: “Making progress on the reimplementation of the Oracle system and getting our finances back on track is a top priority for the council. Having a properly functioning Finance and HR system is crucial.
“We have worked to significantly strengthen governance, to understand the issues within the system, and to learn lessons from what went wrong previously.
“Certain aspects of the programme are off track, which is reflected in the report’s amber rating, but they remain within the programme’s tolerances.
“The council continues to work towards April 2026 as the date for the reimplementation of Oracle. Contingency planning and interim fixes are in place to mitigate risks.”
The council agreed last year to abandon attempts to fix the original Oracle bank reconciliation system and instead bring in a third-party IMS system as part of the work.
The IMS was then delayed last November, and the go-live was moved to April 2025.
It was then rescheduled to early September 2025 ‘to accommodate the increased work required to improve the relationships between the system and banking and accounting architecture’.
But now it has transpired that more work is needed to ‘pass quality standards’.
“At the point of review of the system integration testing milestone in August 2025 the quality criteria required were not fully met to move to the next stage of the programme. This review in August is part of the normal pre-go-live decision-making,” said the council.
The council added: “The daily parallel running testing is going well. The emphasis is on getting the quality right…with ‘minor issues’ found.”
It also says it will not have a critical effect on the Oracle ‘go live’ next Spring.
When asked when the IMS will now go live, the council said: “The revised go-live plan has been developed and will be agreed by the Programme Board in September, following which the revised plan will be communicated to all stakeholders including cabinet members and the chairs of Audit Committee and Scrutiny.”