Too many government projects have become politicised, says David
Tidey, assistant chief executive at the Royal Borough of Kensington
and Chelsea, and chairman of the BCS Elite group of IT directors
and senior mangers.
"We have got to get better at delivering IT," he said. "There
are so many horror stories out there. If you just look at some of
the government projects, half of the problem is that [they have
become] too political... they are not about delivering something
that is very clear. Someone wants to make statements, do something
for the wrong reasons."
Near the end his talk to the
Numara Software Engage Public Sector Forum, Tidey mentioned the
National Programme for IT (NPfIT) in the NHS.
"Nobody can argue that it is a great thing to do, but it has
become so political. It has to be done within a ridiculously short
period of time." He said it would take 15 years to achieve the
changes in working practices which would bring about widespread
clinical use of the systems.
Tidey has a point. And it is not only projects in central
government that have become too political. An egregious example of
politicisation of IT in local government is a
£400m SAP-based transformation programme in Somerset.
It is managed by Southwest One, a joint venture of IBM, Somerset
County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council and Avon and Somerset
Police.
Many staff at the council have long been opposed to the setting
up Southwest One. The local MP Ian Liddell Grainger has made
serious allegations about the joint venture.
In response to its critics, Somerset County Council, as the
leading authority in the joint venture, has gone to the other
extreme: it defends the SAP programme with a language that is
uncommon in a formal report to councillors.
The report to the full Somerset County Council meeting on 20 May
2009 was comprehensive. It did not hide the bad news. It said that
the county council has "recently experienced some real challenges
in implementing our new SAP information system, part of which went
live on 1 April 2009".
But other parts of the report appear to seek applause, such that
the critical sentence quoted above is almost lost:
"I am proud to report that overall
"I am pleased to report that there have been no failures with
any of our required KPIs
"Overall service has exceeded the contracted levels, and will
further improve into 2009/10
"I am particularly pleased to note his [a QC's] view that our
[contractual] framework is considered sound, robust and fully
accessible
"You will be pleased to hear that the initial five projects
which are being progressed in 'Wave One' of this ambitious
programme have made good progress"
Somerset County Council may have good reason to believe its
critics are misinformed. But it defends the SAP transformation with
such defensive force that one is tempted to suspect that something
is seriously wrong.
Officials and ministers speak about the NPfIT with similar
defensive vigour. And that scheme is most
definitely
awry
.
Documentary on £400m Somerset deal