£2bn Wasted on Failed Computer Projects
Not fit for purpose: £2bn cost of government's IT blunders | Technology | The Guardian
The cost to the taxpayer of abandoned Whitehall computer projects since 2000 has reached almost £2bn - not including the bill for an online crime reporting site that was cancelled this week, a survey by the Guardian reveals.The failure of the multimillion pound police site marks the latest chapter in the government's litany of botched IT projects, with several costly schemes biting the dust. Major blunders overseen by Downing Street have included the Child Support Agency's much-derided £486m computer upgrade - which collapsed and forced a £1bn claims write-off - and an adult learning programme that was subjected to extensive fraud.
Top of the ministries for wasting public money is the Department for Work and Pensions, which squandered more than £1.6bn by abandoning three major schemes - a new benefit card which was based on outdated technology; the upgrade to the CSA's computer which could not handle 1.2m existing claims; and £140m on a streamlined benefit payment system that never worked properly.
You could not make this up!! Why is the UK so incapable of getting IT right? How can we trust them to build new projects like ID cards and the proposed child registration database when they are so utterly useless at other projects?
Of course we already know we can trust them with our data - now we know we can trust them with major IT projects as well.
What we really need to do is start sacking the incompetents in charge of these projects - but given the way things work they are more likely to get promoted above their ability and end up with a "K" instead ...