The failure of the Scribe project is not new, but the “flash audit” of the Court of Auditors comes to deliver new details. The Scribe project was intended to develop new software for registering complaints, baptized LRPPN4, intended for the police and the national gendarmerie. Started in December 2015, Scribe has been hampered according to the Court of Auditors “since its beginnings by a lack of framework and a very insufficient formalization of the expression of needs, as well as by a lack of control at all levels, in particular on the selected external service provider. »
Theseus, sole survivor of the shipwreck
The balance sheet is loaded: the Court of Auditors estimates the total bill at €13.28 million in expenses between 2016 and 2022, including “€8.66 million in external services and €4.62 million in internal staff expenses at the administration. »
Substantial sums were therefore implemented, for a final result that is difficult to estimate. The Dinum, which supported the project, thus considers that it is not in a position to “determine what was the reusable part of the services provided within the framework of the Scribe project. The only success of the project: the online complaint platform Thesee, which opened to the public on March 15, 2022. The report of the Court of Auditors indicates that this project benefited from a separate project management from that of the complaint registration software, which did not prevent it from experiencing some delay before its implementation.
The cops leave the ship
From the first hours of the project, it encountered a major difficulty reported by the Court of Auditors: initially planned as a software common to the gendarmerie and the national police, the gendarmerie quickly deserted the project preferring to fall back on its tool registration developed in-house, LRPGN, without the reasons for this change of gear being explained. “The Court’s review did not identify the reasons for the decision taken in November 2016 by the DGGN to waive it. »
If the reasons for this change of approach are not clear to the Court of Auditors, its effects are a little better. “The choice made in November 2016 by the National Gendarmerie leads to many functionalities being the subject of duplicate work” writes the Court of Auditors, before adding that the project management team, now placed solely under the aegis of the national police, has been reduced “to the bare minimum”, namely a project manager and two agents. In addition to these first pitfalls, the Court of Auditors considers that the departure of the gendarmerie also caused a reduction in piloting capacities as well as the opening of a new project aimed at ensuring the interconnection of the software with the various solutions. As the report summarizes: “The absence of an initial decision taken by the political authority in favor of the development of a common tool between the two forces is regrettable. »
Chain starts
From 2016, the project faced many governance difficulties, in particular the successive departures of project managers: “Between 2016 and 2021, three project managers – all three police commissioners – succeeded each other” indicates the report. of the Court of Auditors. “The replacement of a large part of the Capgemini team, which took place in August 2017 at the request of the new technical project manager, then the departure of the first project manager, in May 2018, also disrupted the execution of the program continues the Court of Auditors, which indicates that the project nevertheless managed to achieve “a beginning of recovery” between July 2018 and October 2019 thanks to a second project manager. In October 2019, the Dinum was seized to render an opinion on the project (“with three years of delay” specify the authors of the report) and expressed its concerns about the planning and the projected budget of the project.
A mission to secure the project is launched, as well as a new market allowing better control of the service provider, the company Capgemini. But the Court of Auditors considers that the working relationship between the technical management of the project and the service provider became strained during this period. In March 2021, an internal report from Capgemini considered it “impossible” to continue the development of the project, and it was frozen before being finally abandoned in the fall of 2021.
And a broken piloting
Over the entire development period, the Court of Auditors deplores “a fragmented piloting of the project”, this being shared between a project manager attached to the cabinet of the director of the national police, a technical project manager attached to the Department of technologies and information systems of internal security and finally of the digital department of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for budget monitoring since 2020. In addition, several external service providers are involved in the project, a multiplication of decision-makers having caused “A dilution of responsibilities between the different stakeholders. »
Once the shipwreck has taken place, we will nevertheless have to move forward. A mission entrusted to Dinum in January 2022 led the Ministry of the Interior to choose to relaunch the development of software for recording procedures specific to the police, but keeping in mind a possible convergence with the software currently deployed by the gendarmerie. “The Court recommends that the management of the project by the ministry be reinforced by the use of experienced profiles, and considers that the resumption of joint work between the police and the gendarmerie is a priority objective. »