A report by MPs on the £7bn
Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) has confirmed that the
Ministry of Defence knew the costs of the project would be at least
£5.8bn when parliament was given a figure of £2.3bn.
The discrepancy of more than £2bn between what the MoD knew and
declared as the costs of the DII suggests that questions put by MPs
to the MoD are an unreliable way for parliament, project
participants and the public to find out the real costs of large,
government IT-based programmes.
Computer Weekly has campaigned for more openness on government
IT projects to enable better external scrutiny. We revealed last
July that
MP Mike Hancock had not been given the full truth when he asked the
MoD in 2006 for the costs of the DII.
Now a report of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee
has also drawn attention to the difference between what the MoD
knew and what it told parliament.
The committee's report, which was published yesterday, says,
"The department originally forecast that the programme would cost
£5.8bn - this cost is greater than the £2.3bn that the department
had previously reported to parliament."
When MP Mike Hancock asked for the costs of the DII the MoD gave
him only the value of the initial contract - Increment 1 - which
had been awarded to Atlas, the EDS-led consortium which is
delivering DII systems. The MoD said nothing of the internal
budgets for the cost of subsequent stages of the project.
The committee's report says that the total cost of the DII is
now projected to be £7.1bn. The report says that the MoD has
"acknowledged that this [the £2.3bn figure given to Parliament]
could have been explained more fully".
Hancock asked in his parliamentary question of the MoD on 17
July 2006 for the "original estimated costs and in service delivery
date was for the Defence Information Infrastructure project and
what the current situation is in each case".
This was the MoD's reply:
"Increment 1 of the Defence Information Infrastructure contract
was awarded to the Atlas Consortium, led by EDS, in March 2005 with
an estimated value of £2.3bn. This estimated value remains extant.
There is no 'in service delivery date' as such within the contract.
The contracted 'New Services Commencement Date' was originally
March 2006. This date was subsequently revised to May 2006 and was
met successfully."
Key parts of report on DII project >>