By Polly Raymond, 26 October 1998 15:09
NEWS The UK government is in danger of wasting millions of pounds of taxpayers' money because it is incapable of centralising the development of smartcard projects across public services, according to the UK Smartcard Club's leader, Richard Poynder. Poynder made the comments as he revealed details of a new smartcard trial planned for Aberdeen's council services. He said: "Whilst the UK government keeps coming up with bright ideas for the use of plastic cards by its citizens, it seems entirely incapable of getting behind any initiative to do this in a cost-effective and cohesive way." The key to electronic government is to create one card per citizen for use across social, health, education and transport services, he maintained. The result of different cards and card infrastructures that can't interact, is the duplication of expensive resources and the sapping of precious funding. The claims come soon after the government's recent drive to take the lead in European electronic commerce. Secretary of State at the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), Peter Mandleson, has stated his intention to encourage the UK to become a "digital pathfinder". However, the Central Information Technology Unit (Citu) - the department responsible for co-ordinating smartcard development - dismissed Poynder's challenge. A spokeswoman said: "The government is not in the business of creating a single smartcard for all its departments." The Smartcard Club represents a wide membership of retail, banking and government organisations hoping to keep their finger on the pulse of smartcard developments. It has taken an advisory role in the launch of Aberdeen's 'Citizen Card' project. Aberdeen residents will use the card across the region's social, transport and leisure services from March.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.
Log in or create your silicon.com account below