An investigation by the Independent has revealed that delays, overruns, and cancellations of proposed Government IT projects has cost the British taxpayer £26 billion.
The figure, which reportedly is equivalent to more than half the 2009 schools budget, has come in several areas, the most notorious being the scheme intended to revolutionise the NHS.
It was claimed that by 2005 everyone would have online access to their health records, but currently only 160 health organisations, mostly GP surgeries are using the system.
To add insult to injury, the taxpayer has had to foot £39.2 million in legal bills over this elaborate white elephant.
Among other giant and costly failures are projects at the Department of Transport, which ran £24 million over estimate, and the DVLA, where a new computer system turned out to be in German, not English.
Several current projects might also be cut back or abandoned as the Chancellor attempts to cut the country's staggering £175bn deficit.
All not well at the MoD
The Defence Information Infrastructure project at the Ministry of Defence is another IT fiasco, now set to cost an eye-watering £7.1bn and currently £180m over budget.
"No proper pilot for this highly complex programme was carried out, and entirely inadequate research led to a major miscalculation of the condition of the Department's buildings in which the new system would be installed," said the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Edward Leigh.
Via the Independent
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
robbo2k
January 19th 2010
4. A big finger of blame should be pointed at the companies contracted to carry out the work. The consultancy work alone must command a fortune before any actual development of the projects take place.
The goverment fails however by continuing to employ the services of those companies who make major failures but continue to be given multi million pound projects.
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lex
January 19th 2010
3. "The Defence Information Infrastructure project at the Ministry of Defence is another IT fiasco, now set to cost an eye-watering £7.1bn and currently £180m over budget."
Now, £7.1bn is eye-watering, but £180m is just 2.5% of that, so not ideal but hardly staggering.
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scottgilbert
January 19th 2010
2. so all these it projects are talking about sharing data, why dont they keep it simple, all data is stored in your passport chip,
you go to dr, take your passport with you.
Or offer an incentive, microchip inserted into your body, and you get £1000 for the 1st 10,000 people.
no need for passports or papers as all officials will have chip readers which will identify chip carrier. (i know it went off on a tangent)
Anyway back to core subject, all those who have mismanged these projects should be sacked and asset seized, what happened to the clauses in the contracts signed?????
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pete_l
January 19th 2010
1. A remarkably misleading story, this.
It takes all the accumulated costs over an unspecified time period (the article in the Indy says "labour's", so we can presume that means for the past 13 years) and then compares that against the budget of one department for a single year. Now, I'm not in favour of one party of lying b@s...ds over any other, but this use of numbers is disingenuous and we expect better.
Anyway, it's better for the govt. to "waste" this money on IT projects than to spend it on other follies such as illegal wars, more CCTV suppressing our freedoms or MPs expenses.
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