Regulating the use of private consulting firms: Numeum calls for all IT services to be excluded from the scope of the proposed law

Far from being neutral for the sector, this new text will – in a market that is already under pressure – divert many private players from the public IT procurement market, which will have the following consequences:

• Putting the State’s digital security at risk.Given that the cyber risk is exponential in a context of high geopolitical tensions, the State cannot afford to deprive itself of the resources and skills of the private sector in the field of cyber security. Otherwise, its ability to act in crisis situations, such as large-scale cyberattacks, could be compromised;
• Dry up the supply of public-sector services:themany smaller IT service providers will not be able to comply with the complex system envisaged by the senators. Larger players, on the other hand, will have to bear the legal burden of a very high volume of consultants subject to this system, a burden incompatible with the deployment of agile models in the public sector.

The compromise adopted by the Senate Committee on Legislation settles nothing!

The text adopted by the Senate’s Law Committee on October 12 now excludes programming and maintenance services from “IT consultancy”.

In view of the risks raised for the public sector, such a distinction is not only unrealistic given the way in which the IT sector works, but the remedy could even be worse than the evil, as it would make the provision unenforceable and therefore legally unstable:

• Irrealisticbecause many activities are not strictly speaking part of computer programming and maintenance, but are in fact included in and carried out with programming, in particular the architecture of a data platform or an information system, the formalization of an expression of requirements, or the implementation of a test or acceptance strategy for the evolution of the State’s major information systems;
• InapplicableThis would mean having to separate, within the same service offering, activities that fall within the scope of the law from those that do not, creating considerable legal uncertainty for service providers.

A clear risk of blocking the digital transformation of public administrations

At a time when the challenges of digitizing the State are considerable – remote administrative procedures, teleconsultations, digital identity – the public sector is depriving itself of the skills of private IT service providers.

The public sector needs external IT service providers to modernize and digitize its administrations and administrative procedures for the public.Between 25 and 30,000 full-time equivalents are currently working on behalf of the State to deploy mail management software, invoicing systems, etc. throughout the country.

Numeum therefore calls on the legislature to exclude IT services from the scope of this proposed law.