Internal Affairs up and running on Oracle cloud finance platform ‘Rehutai’

The Department of Internal Affairs is now live on Oracle’s cloud-based financial software after piggybacking on Inland Revenue’s SAP software for years.

The department of tax provided accounts payable and accounts receivable services to Internal Affairs until the end of June this year through its SAP R/3 financial system and support services. However, as part of its transformation programme, IRD selected and implemented Oracle’s CloudSuite to replace SAP in a $20.2 million deal.

Internal Affairs said it had held all its financial capability under one Oracle  system. dubbed Rehutai (sea spray), since 12 July, 

“In 2020/21, we have been focused on Punaha Whakahaere Tahua; improving our financial systems, processes and capabilities across the organisation so we can manage our money better and more efficiently, helping us focus more on strategic outcomes,” the department’s annual report explained.

Internal Affairs reported a $515,000 increase in a provision for “onerous contracts” in 2021, explaining this was due to a non-cancellable lease and software licenses where the unavoidable costs of meeting the contract exceeded the economic benefits expected. 

“The leases are onerous because of vacant space and the software licenses due to moving to a new finance system,” a note explained.

Internal Affairs went to market for a replacement system and implementation services last January, indicating other parts of Oracle’s package could be added to financial management at a later date.

“This new solution should also cover business processes for human resources, procurement, enterprise asset management and corporate functions (such as work health and safety, business continuity and emergency management),” it stipulated.

IRD rolled out Oracle-based enterprise support services functionality in 2019 with the aid of Accenture in a project costing $20.2 million, excluding payroll. It went on the create a template of its project to help other government agencies pursue similar projects. 

Several have since followed with Oracle cloud rollouts of their own.

Among many other functions, Internal Affairs has oversight over pan-government ICT policy and investment. The department’s Statement of Intent 2021 – 2025 said, among other measures, success would mean that by 2030 the public sector would be operating off “standardised, interoperable, and common digital systems”.

“We will use a data-driven approach to co-ordinate investment, develop a digital roadmap, review investment policies and guidance, and consider how to better support the investment needs of smaller agencies,” it said.

“A current focus for many government agencies is new payroll systems. We are providing greater oversight of these investments, supporting government payroll practitioners, and establishing a panel of payroll systems and services.”