The State Comptroller's report published today (Tuesday) indicates that the National Insurance Institute's computer upgrade project significantly deviates from the original plan.
The 'Tevel' project, which began in 2010 and was scheduled to be completed in 2020, is expected to last at least until 2025, with no expected date for its full completion.
The report reveals that the National Insurance Institute decided to remove 19 core systems (50%) from the project out of 38 originally planned - including the system that handles old-age and survivors' pension payments, which was developed in 1973 - 51 years ago - and is still active.
Reserve, unemployment, and child benefit systems were also removed from the project.
Of the 38 core systems planned to be completed by 2020, only 10 systems (26%) have been implemented so far. Nine more systems have yet to be implemented, and the rest have been shelved.
The auditor warns: "The technological capacity and availability of professionals to continue maintaining the outdated systems is diminishing."
The project, which was planned to be completed at a cost of NIS 477 million, is expected to cost at least NIS 1.5 billion by 2025 - an overrun of about NIS 1 billion.
The auditor emphasizes: "The National Insurance Institute does not have an estimate of the expected cost of the next multi-year plan, and therefore there is no estimate of the expected total cost of the project at its completion."
The report points to failures in project management. The National Insurance Institute retrospectively updates the hours planned for each task according to the actual execution hours, which prevents real control over exceptions. "In the absence of reliable reporting on planning data, effective budgetary and process control cannot be carried out," states the auditor.
Despite this, the new system manages to serve part of the public: in 2022, 270,000 insured people were treated through it, 140,000 claims were filed, and 50,000 medical committees were held.
The auditor states: "The significant deviations in the project require the National Insurance Administration to demonstrate significant involvement in monitoring the factors that led to these deviations, to build mechanisms to reduce them, and to determine in a final and binding manner the project completion date and its budget."
National Insurance response:
The auditor's report came in the midst of process changes and in-depth staff work with the arrival of a new VP of IT at the National Insurance Institute.
Even though the changes were underway and even though the auditor was told about this and presented with the work plan, the audit took place.
This is why the report does not address cyber incidents or information leaks as a result of negligence, and the main focus of the review is solely on administrative aspects, which we also emphasize.
Everything that came up in the report is already in the work plans, some of which have already been completed and upgraded.
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