By Andy McCue, 22 July 2004 12:25
NEWS MPs have called for the "cloak of commercial confidentiality" to be lifted after an eight-month inquiry slammed the "appalling" waste of taxpayers money on failed government IT projects.
The Work and Pensions select committee inquiry into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) IT modernisation programme was launched following high-profile problems with the new Child Support Agency (CSA) system run by EDS.
The report, out today, brands the new CSA computer system, known as CS2, "over-spec, over-budget and over-due" and recommends the DWP scrap it if the system is not fully operational for new cases by the end of the year.
"In our view, abandonment of the CS2 project is preferable to stubbornly continuing with the present situation only to abandon it later when the recovery plan falters."
CS2 is now estimated to have cost £456m and is processing new claims so slowly that the backlog of new work is increasing by 30,000 cases a quarter, according to the report.
The report makes 36 conclusions and the main recommendation for improving the success rate of IT systems is around accountability.
"CS2 demonstrates the lack of accountability that exists, even for defective systems. Although CS2 has been subject to a number of reviews, we have not been given access to these reviews on grounds of confidentiality – which is certainly convenient for the Department and makes us suspicious," the report said.
Liberal Democrat MP Sir Archy Kirkwood, chair of the cross-party select committee, said there is an urgent need for more transparency and for the Office of Government Commerce's powers to be strengthened.
"Failing IT systems are an appalling waste of public money and cause distress to thousands of people," he said in the report. "Government has produced a mountain of guidance to encourage successful IT projects, but there's no way for Parliament or the public to know whether it's being followed – until the IT fails and then it's too late."
According to the report, the DWP has spent £4.25bn on IT projects since 2001 and expenditure on government IT projects as a whole in 2003/2004 is in excess of £12.4bn.
Comments
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1. Marc
Why do the letters EDS appear in almost all these type of stories? How do these people ever get granted contracts? Don't the people who give these things out read stuff like this?
just say it to yourself: four hundred and fifty six million pounds. money that you and i gave the government from our taxes and it gets ballsed up. why aren't people being fired/beaten for this? If I lost £456 milliion quid i'd be in prison. Why do we tolerate this?
2. An Upset Tax Payer
It is a sham that MP's can not see how much money that they actualy waste. The government wastes more money that I can imagine (21K pay rises to stop fiddling expenses).
3. anonymous
I'd be interested to know if part of the failure of these new systems is because the user doesn't understand how they work and/or they don't cover all aspects of the job task requirements.
It's quite usual for IT Consultants to forget to 'consult' the staff who use these systems.
4. Bill Sundling
Governments waste money like this all the time. Doesn't matter where it is. This stuff happens in the US as well.
I think the real problem isn't that politicians don't know how much money they're wasting. I think the real problem is they really don't care.
5. anonymous
By definition the size and complexity of most public sector IT projects is far greater than the norm. The costs, risks and impact of failure equally so.
Software development is an extremely complex business and becoming more so with every day that passes. It is NOT easy. The critical success factors are however seldom exclusively about the technology.
By definition, these projects represent fundamental change for the departments concerned with implications far beyond the successful technical operation of "the system".
These issues need to be assertively managed or valuable time and money will be lost in futile debate. This is often terminal!
It is true that the same mistakes are being repeated - but the irrevocable fact is that the critical success factors are constant. They are about a mix of:
·Clearly defined and communicated business objectives
·Project Governance: assertive, informed and rapid decision making about business and technology matters - particularly those that extend scope or timescale
·Empowered and capable management
·Subject matter expertise - detailed knowledge of the business domain
·Technology solution design and delivery
·Supplier Management - usually achieved via a commercial model that aligns supplier and customer objectives.
It is also critical to note that it is unlikely that the managers in the departments concerned have any experience of managing or delivering projects of this nature. Endless volumes on best practice are no substitute for experience.
Finally, beware debilitating (and expensive) bureaucracy!
Stay focused at all times.
6. Civil Servant
If you think that's bad, wait until you see the privatization of MoD IT services. One of the consortia is headed by - you guessed it - EDS accompanied by Fujitsu. So while MPs slam EDS on one hand, on the other hand they're being encouraged to bid for one of the biggest government IT contracts ever. It started with four consortia, two have dropped out before even submitting their bids because they know they can't make money from it, the two left are committed to paring MoD IT services to the bone to make it pay - and that after the fuss over late MoD deliveries. Good old Tony B Liar, nice to know we're safe in his hands.
7. John Lee
As a small ICT business running since 1989 I cannot see how the waste of money can be stopped while small businesses are excluded due long winded tenders from getting involved.
8. Kevin Taylor
Why does the gov not use its head and lease such systems as it needs . then the commercial value lays with theproducer of the system and the problems are not passed onto the taxpayer . A simple clause in any such lease could allow pelanties to be incured for every day that the system in down . naw too smart for government
9. Jon
Well said that man!
Am studying IT at school and even I know where the government is going wrong with their big IT system failures!
Time they starting doing things the way that they're taxing the adult population to get us (youth) taught!