Firm embroiled in Arts Council IT row won a 'government partner of the year' award

Codec, which was paid almost €2m including VAT for its contribution to the axed Arts Council IT system, was honoured in the 2024 Microsoft Partner of the Year awards

Simon Harris: ‘I think people are getting a bit sick and tired, to put it mildly, of public money not being spent adequately.'  Picture: PA

A company at the centre of the €6.7m Arts Council IT system scandal won a Microsoft Government Partner of the Year award last year, it has emerged.

Tánaiste Simon Harris has described the millions of euro wasted on the abandoned IT project, which breached spending rules, as “absolutely alarming” and told the Dáil that it will not be a “consequence-free zone” for officials involved.

An external review of all activities at the State agency is to be carried out after it came to light that the project, which had an initial cost of €3m and spiralled to more than double the original cost, was eventually axed in 2024 having been deemed not fit for purpose.

Tech firm Codec was awarded the largest contract under the project, with the company paid a total of €1,967,278, including VAT, for its role as the “technology delivery partner”.

The company was responsible for “system design and build” of the IT system for the Arts Council.

Firm won 'partner' award

According to Codec’s website, the company received the Government Partner of the Year award at the Microsoft Partner awards, held at the Mansion House in June 2024.

Alongside Codec, two other companies — Ergo Managed Services and Expleo — were paid the lion’s share of the €6.7m spent on the IT system, which was never delivered. In total, the three companies received just under €4.8m.

Ergo Managed Services received the most contracts from the Arts Council, with seven awarded for services including programme management and quality assurance.

It received a total of €2,097,206 for its services. Expleo was initially contracted in 2020 as a quality assurance partner, while also having responsibilities for business analytics. In all, the firm was paid €734,701.

All three companies were contacted for comment, but none was received.

While issues were flagged in the annual report submitted to the Department of Arts last summer, Mr Harris confirmed to the Dáil that the overspend was not raised with the previous government. He said the project was not simply a “mistake”, and instead was “a very clear and flagrant breach of the public spending code”.

Responding to Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín, Mr Harris said: “I think people are getting a bit sick and tired, to put it mildly, of public money not being spent adequately with, in this case, nothing to show for it and finding that there are individuals who are often somewhat anonymous regarding those issues.”

It is understood that the Arts Council has indicated to Arts Minister Patrick O’Donovan that it is considering the pursuit of legal redress over the project.

A report compiled by the Department of Arts says the project was delayed for multiple reasons, including that the Arts Council was not satisfied with the initial work on the project and that milestones were not hit as quickly as expected.

Concerns around “frequent changes” in senior members of the project delivery team were also raised.

During the project’s delivery, there were a total of 17 change requests, which led to a further cost of €707,770 to the project.