Key facts
The Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) has carried out a second audit on the ZEMIS renewal (ERZ) programme as a key project. The Central Migration Information System (ZEMIS) is outdated and is also no longer compatible with other standard systems in the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP). The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) is therefore running the renewal programme ERZ, which consists of seven projects, to modernise the system landscape while optimising its business processes at the same time. The programme was launched in May 2022. At the time, the SEM’s plans were for the programme to run for around five years with total costs of CHF 65.9 million. This was later extended to 2032 after the plan was re-written. The total costs have increased by CHF 127.1 million to CHF 193 million.
With the new plan and the creation of new roles, the SEM laid important foundations for the successful implementation of the ERZ programme. Within the time available, the SEM has made considerable progress with the programme. However, there are still some significant uncertainties in the cost estimate. This means that the new plan is not yet reliable for the entire programme period. The SEM has not yet been able to fully implement some of the SFAO’s recommendations arising from the audit carried out in 2022. To resolve these uncertainties, the interaction between the SEM, the IT Service Centre (ISC) and the General Secretariat of the FDJP must be optimised.