(Quebec) The Auditor General of Quebec has launched an audit of the rollout of the Société de l'assurance auto du Québec's digital platform, SAAQclic, which experienced several failures during its winter 2023 launch.
The Office of the Auditor General, Guélène Leclerc, offers on its website a contribution form to conduct an audit regarding “SAAQclic and its components”.
In this form, residents are invited to provide a description of the events they experienced in connection with the SAAQclic deployment, which the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs, Eric Kerr, has already described as a “fiasco.”
The report on this audit is currently scheduled to be published in winter 2025, but the timeline can always be adjusted, the Auditor General's Office states.
Newspaper the sunThe existence of this audit was first revealed by the Auditor General, in Quebec, on Friday morning.
Launched in February 2023, SAAQclic was introduced as a platform that allows customers to carry out most transactions online, including renewing a driver's license, paying for registration or scheduling a driving exam, among others.
However, its launch was fraught with pitfalls. SAAQ service centres, among other things, had to close for two weeks to allow transfers, resulting in long queues when they reopened.
Last fall, SAAQ President and CEO Eric Ducharme revealed that the bill for the digital transformation chaos topped $41 million. This amount included in particular the employment of 465 people, representing an expenditure of $28 million on an annual basis, as well as $6 million in overtime.
Mr. Ducharme took office last April, when his predecessor, Denis Marsolay, was removed from office by the Cabinet in the wake of the SAAQclic failure.
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