Taxpayers will pay an extra £18bn for several government IT
projects where costs are out of control, a joint report by
Computer Weekly and The Times has revealed.
The spiralling costs were laid bare in a
study of eight of government's largest IT projects by The
Times newspaper.
An IT contract for the tax credit system that was originally set
at £2.9 billion is now expected to cost £8.5 billion, the study
showed.
A project to link to MoD databases is already up to £7.1 billion
and a Ministry of Justice project (Nomis) to link records for each
offender is reported to be overrunning by £456 million.
Despite the fact that some projects are years behind schedule
and other have been scaled back or scrapped, government is expected
to spend £102bn on IT projects in the next five years.
The revelations come just a week after a
Public Accounts Committee report said the £12.7bn National
Programme for IT (NpfIT) is not yet providing value for money
after nearly seven years.
The NpfIT,which aims to link 30,000 GPs to nearly 300 hospitals,
was originally estimated at £2.3 billion.
The all-party committee said there have been few successful
deployments of the scheme's two main hospital systems.
The delays are despite the programme's spending of £2.4bn by
March 2007, about £700m of which went on the central costs of
supporting the programme.
The committee found that if problems with the hospital systems
cannot be resolved it may be necessary to "renegotiate or terminate
the existing contracts with the Local Service Providers - BT and
CSC.
Little clinical functionality has been deployed to date with the
result that the expectations of clinical staff have not been met.
This is despite the award of central contracts for the programme
five years ago, the committee said.
Although the committee's report raises questions about the
feasibility of the NPfIT, the government is likely to reject the
main findings. A formal response by the government is expected
within two months.
See also:
Read Tony Collins' opinion piece for TimesOnline, and join the debate: Something must be done to
break cycle of IT failure >>
Times Online: Secret computer deals that are costing
the taxpayer billions