Leader: Heads should roll when gov't IT goes wrong

In the old days, the saying was 'nobody ever got fired for buying IBM'.

But now - at least for civil servants - it seems this has been updated to 'nobody ever got fired for wasting taxpayers' money on a failed IT project'.

A recent report from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) points out that despite wasting more than £1bn on failed IT, the government is still falling into the same well-publicised pitfalls when they approach new projects.

And the stakes are high - just a two per cent improvement in the use of resources could save £8bn per year, the same as 2p off the basic rate of tax.

IT projects in the public sector face some unique challenges - requirements that are subject to change at the whim of politicians, the harsh gaze of the press eager to swoop on any delay or difficulties, and the complexity that comes from the sheer scale of projects.

But is a lack of responsibility another cause that needs to be dealt with?

While ministers and senior civil servants may fear appearing in front of the PAC or other government committees, when was the last time a minister lost their job because they had allowed vast sums of our money to be poured down the drain on failed IT projects?

As one silicon.com reader pointed out in a comment posted on the site: "Until civil servants are made to accept personal responsibility for their advice and actions, with sacking closely linked to failure and incompetence, then we will continue to suffer from mismanagement and waste in the public service."

Another reader put it slightly more bluntly: "In the private sector if you or your project fails then you're out! Civil servants and politicians are also not punished by redundancy when these big projects fail."

Of course, this doesn't mean every delay or problem should lead to instant firings - if we want our civil servants to innovate they must be allowed to fail to some extent. And, as much central government IT is developed by external suppliers, much responsibility lies with them in the private sector.

But the idea that when IT goes wrong the ministers or officials involved can simply wash their hands of the mess is no longer acceptable. Perhaps if the saying was changed to 'nobody gets promoted after messing up IT' then we might start to see some results.