(Quebec) The Auditor General of Quebec, Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec, has launched an audit on the deployment of SAAQclic's digital platform, which suffered several setbacks during its launch in the winter of 2023.
On its website, the Office of the Auditor General, Guylaine Leclerc, provides a cooperation form for an audit of “SAAQclic and its components”.
In this form, citizens are invited to provide a description of their experiences with the deployment of SAAQclic, which has already been described as a “failure” by Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs Minister Eric Kair.
Publication of the report on this audit is currently scheduled for winter 2025, but the schedule can always be revised, the auditor general's office recalled.
News magazine the sunIn Quebec, the auditor general revealed the existence of the audit for the first time on Friday morning.
Launched in February 2023, SAAQclic is offered as a platform that allows users to conduct a range of transactions online, such as renewing a driver's license, paying for registration or making an appointment for a test.
But its experiment was fraught with pitfalls. SAAQ service centres, among other things, were forced to close for two weeks to allow for the transition, leading to long queues when they reopened.
Last fall, SAAQ's president and CEO, Eric Ducharme, revealed that the bill for chaos in the digital transformation exceeded 41 million. Of this amount, 465 people were mainly employed, spending 28 million on an annual basis, as well as 6 million in overtime.
Mr. Ducharme took office last April, when his predecessor, Denis Marsolais, was removed from his post by the Cabinet in the wake of the SAAQclic fiasco.