As a final report comes out on how to manage damage-control on a glitch-filled computer system for processing welfare payments, the minister in charge of the program is apologizing for the inadequate training provided to frontline staff — but is refusing to assign blame for the problems that have run up millions of dollars in extra staffing costs and processed inaccurate payments.

Helena Jaczek, minister of community and social services, has rejected calls for her resignation over the botched rollout of the $242-million social assistance management system (SAMS). When the problems first came to light in December, about a month after SAMS had been put in operation, Jaczek told the opposition parties they were making "a mountain out of a very small molehill."

But five months later, after $10 million in payments have been made to municipalities to help them deal with the burden of SAMS and a steady flow of reports have come out from municipalities about the chronic problems, Jaczek sounded a more apologetic note.

"The report shows that, despite the initial and even additional training on SAMS before its launch, we did not provide our staff with the right kind of training," Jaczek said, referring to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report released Friday morning. "Frankly, we underestimated the impact that SAMS would have on the day-to-day activity of case-workers ...

"I'm particularly disappointed that the challenges of adapting to SAMS has clearly undermined the trust of our staff and delivery partners. And for that, I am truly sorry."

The ministry says it has spent $271 million on SAMS so far, including $242 million on the development of the IBM-designed system and $29.4 million on implementing it (including the extra payments to municipalities after the scale of the glitches became clear).

And there may be more costs coming: The PwC report says "current and future resource capacity will need to be assessed" in order to carry out an "integrated transition plan."

The 62-page report, which contains a heavy dose of impenetrable management jargon, includes a jurisdiction review of other places that have brought in IT systems similar to SAMS, an overview of continuing challenges with the transition to SAMS, and 19 recommendations that include a revamped governance structure for dealing with the transition.

Jaczek said the new governance structure would include having a single "point person" who would take responsibility for the transition.

However, the report was very limited in scope, and excluded any assessment of "the overall system or infrastructure performance of SAMS" or an opinion on "the functional or technical readiness of the SAMS solution."

Questioned by reporters, Jaczek denied it was a mistake to roll out the system in November, and said she had been unaware of any significant problems with the training of staff at the time. "This is not about assigning blame," she said.

Jaczek said the training that had been provided to frontline staff wasn't the right type for what was needed for SAMS, but again refused to say who was to blame for this, and said she was "personally not given the impression" that staff were inadequately trained at the time of rollout.

Transcripts do show that both the PC and NDP critics had raised questions at the estimates committee in early November about whether workers were properly trained for SAMS, but both Jaczek and ministry staff assured them at the time that everything was fine.

"We are confident that staff are prepared and ready," said Richard Steele, the assistant deputy minister for the Social Assistance Operations Division, at the committee on Nov. 4.

OPSEU president Smokey Thomas has also said numerous times that the union consistently warned ministry staff the training wasn't good enough.

PC social services critic Bill Walker said Friday that Jaczek's response shows "Liberals are unable to acknowledge when they make mistakes ... People’s lives are impacted by this oversight. Someone needs to lose their job over this."

New Democrat Peter Tabuns said that OPSEU and others had given clear warnings about the problems. "For the Liberals to say they didn't know shows that either they're not being straightforward, or that they weren't diligent in actually protecting the interests of the people of Ontario."

To contact the reporter on this story:
bplatt@qpbriefing.com
416-809-3173

Jaczek apologizes for inadequate SAMS training, but won’t assign blame

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