A MAJOR part of the multi-million pound digital transformation of local authority services in the Borders has hit the rocks.

Scottish Borders Council is hoping to change the way it deals with the public by introducing wide-sweeping improvements to its website and other digital platforms.

The local authority has also introduced new internal digital systems for monitoring and sanctioning customer invoices, wages and holiday entitlement.

But we can reveal the company delivering the delayed Digital Customer Access portal has now been sacked.

It was hoped to have the portal, which would allow the public to contact and conduct business with the council online, going live in April.

Residents in the Borders should have been able to carry out council tax, housing benefit and environmental reporting transactions on the new online channel already.

Other services were expected to be included in the following months and years.

But continued problems have led to delays - and this week it emerged that the contract with Agilisys, who were appointed by the council's digital partners CGI, has been terminated.

Scottish Borders Council confirmed the latest development in the troubled digital roll-out.

A spokesman told us: "The council has requested that its IT partner CGI terminates its contract with Agilisys, a third party supplier, following Agilisys’ failure to meet key milestones in the Digital Customer Access project to develop new and improved digital services for customers.

“The council will work with CGI to identify a new solution to achieve the project objectives.

“This is a commercial decision which does not in any way affect the council’s contract with CGI or the delivery of any other projects, including the Business World internal system, as part of the Digital Transformation programme, which continues to progress well and deliver significant benefits to the council and local communities.”

CGI was awarded Scottish Borders Council's digital operations contract last year - valued at £92 million over 13 years.

The local authority's 49 IT staff were transferred over to the new company, which was tasked with leading the digital revolution in the region.

CGI awarded the contracts for delivering the external Digital Customer Access programme and the internal Business World system to Agilisys.

Although Scottish Borders Council maintains that other parts of the Digital Transformation programme are making good progress, insiders believe this week's Digital Customer Access bombshell is the tip of the IT failure iceberg.

One worker told us: "The Digital Customer Access has been fraught with problems and the internal Business World system isn't much better.

"There have been continual problems with both systems and a lot of people are extremely frustrated."

Although last week's Quarterly Corporate Performance Report, which went before the ruling Executive Committee, didn't contain any updates on the Digital Transformation programme, problems with the internal Business World system were blamed for a drop in suppliers being paid on time.

Payments to firms for services and goods within the 30-day requirement usually runs at more than 90 per cent success rate, but since April, when Business World went live, the figure had dropped to 79 per cent being paid on time.

Officer Lynn Mirley told the meeting: "The decline in performance over the quarter is a result of the implementation of Business World and the various system, processing and procedure issues which have arisen since going live on April 1, 2017.

"Work has been ongoing with members of SBC, Agilisys and CGI to resolve the issues as quick as possible, however the delay in some issues being fixed caused a backlog in the invoices needing processed."

Council bosses maintain that the internal Business World system, which is also operated by Agilisys, is not causing any major problems.

And claims that mistakes with staff monthly wages are false.

The spokesman added: "The termination of the contract with Agilisys purely relates to the Digital Customer Access project and has no implications for the Business World system, which Agilisys was separately contracted by CGI to deliver.

“It takes time to fully bed in a new system of the scale of Business World, which has delivered a new single system for finance, procurement and human resources, and a process of refinement is to be expected post go live as staff and customers learn and engage with new processes.

“There has been no significant service failures since Business World was implemented and no staff have been paid incorrectly.”