No recruitment freeze for external contractors: after SAAQclic, the state company hires a consulting firm

The recruitment freeze imposed in the civil service does not apply to external contractors. After spending millions of dollars for SAAQclic, the state-owned company is spending more than $450,000 to obtain consulting services in IT systems governance.

In October, the Legault government announced the end of hiring additional staff in ministries and agencies due to the state of public finances. Quebec is struggling with a historic deficit of $11 billion.

But using external expertise is always permitted since this strategy does not affect the envelope dedicated to paid hours, as long as operating budgets are respected.

This is what allows the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec to call on the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers to help it manage its information systems. A six-month contract worth $400,000 has just been concluded, an amount that does not include taxes.

“With a view to continuous improvement, the company is improving its general IT control processes. To support it in this exercise, the company is calling on a firm that can offer consulting services,” said the organization’s spokesperson, Gino Desrosiers.

Fiasco SAAQclic

However, the SAAQ has already carried out its digital transformation, not without difficulty. Remember that the deployment of its new web platform forced the closure of branches for around twenty days at the start of 2023.

When the state-owned company resumed operations, there was a backlog in processing files, which was difficult to catch up on. The website also experienced failures in the months that followed, causing long queues in front of service points.

The fiasco cost taxpayers more than $40 million due to massive hiring of employees and increased overtime. Services to citizens have experienced failures. An external audit, led by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, was even carried out to discover the cause.

Faced with this discomfiture, President and CEO Denis Marsolais was fired and replaced by Éric Ducharme.

The overall cost of digital transformation at the SAAQ is estimated at more than $500 million.