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Observations and Recommendations
4.I Information Systems
Ensure information entered into SIMSI is reliable and accurate. The key internal control identified in this area is to ensure that information being entered into SIMSI is verified for accuracy. SIMSI will be used for management purposes and to compile the final evaluation information for the program, thus it's accuracy will be important in ensuring that the results of the evaluation reflect actual events.
SIMSI is the Shared Information Management System for Infrastructure developed by the federal government in accordance with Clause 11.1 of the CBCIP Agreement. SIMSI is a web-based system with sections available to the public and sections for internal use only by the federal and provincial Ministries.
4.I.1
Delays in introduction of SIMSI have resulted in data integrity issues.When SIMSI was introduced all of the information from the interim provincial system, Remedy, had to be input. There was no process in place to verify the accuracy or completeness of data entered into SIMSI at that time. SIMSI is not a useful management tool if the database is inaccurate or incomplete.
CAC has found that delays in implementation of SIMSI resulted in data integrity problems. Date fields, for example, are not always correct which means that any reports prepared from the database may not be reliable.
Recommendation
CBCIP should develop and implement a process to verify and ensure completeness and accuracy of all data in SIMSI.
4.I.2
Provincial Ministries do not have access to all SIMSI functions.We were advised by MCAWS and MCSE that the B.C. government has a network security firewall problem which limits their use of the full functionality of SIMSI. At this time the provincial ministries are able to run standard SIMSI reports as well ad hoc reports that have been customized for British Columbia and are available on the system. The SIMSI users at the provincial ministries, however, are unable to prepare new, non-standard analytical reports using the SIMSI database. They must rely on WD to prepare the new report. WD then puts the report template on SIMSI as an ad hoc customized report which the provincial users can access.
Given the above, we noted that MCAWS uses non-SIMSI databases and spreadsheets for keeping track of applications and contracts.
Recommendation
The provincial government should work towards finding a solution that will provide full functionality of SIMSI to users in MCAWS and MCSE.