I.T.’s a scandal…
Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
When it comes to wasting public money, I wonder sometimes if it wouldn’t be easier for some Government departments to go down to the bank, withdraw millions, if not billions, of pounds in hard cash and then set fire to it in the car park.
I suspect one of the reasons they steer clear of this particular approach is because, with climate change constantly in the news, such a noxious cloud would do some serious environmental harm.
Instead, when they feel there is a little too much of the taxpayer’s money cluttering up the place, some clever special advisor decides it is probably time they implemented a new IT project. With one fell swoop the mountains of cash are disposed of quickly, efficiently, with no damage to the environment and little benefit to the country.
The reason for this train of thought are the reports this week that HM Revenue and Customs IT budget will soar to £8.5 billion – three times the original estimate. Typically, it started at £2.8 billion and then escalated rapidly, including £52 million in “transition” costs to the firms, including Capgenemi who are estimated to make a £1.1 billion profit on the deal.
Even if this was a one-off, it could not be excused, but it comes in the wake of a history of IT failures and overspends under this Government. The NHS IT projects have been billions of pounds over budget, the tax credits fiasco has caused widespread misery for claimants and the problems at the Department for Work and Pensions, which crashed 80,000 computers simultaneously in 2004, was the biggest computer crash in government history.
It really is a case of money to burn, and its ours.