- Governments have historically rarely outsourced core tasks, but in IT they have quietly shifted critical services to private companies like Solvinity, creating dependencies.
- The Solvinity case highlights risks: the takeover of a company running DigiD could threaten vital services, and current contracts lack the heavy regulation seen in sectors like toll roads or telecom.
- Reasons governments cannot do IT themselves include bureaucratic delays, lack of technical expertise, and difficulty in contracting between ministries.
- Three solutions are proposed: (1) market with heavy regulation, (2) only using standardized, interchangeable services, and (3) creating a government-owned cloud company.
- Core tasks must remain close to government with strong control; leaving them to the market without robust regulation risks loss of state power.