Government gets a roasting for computer blunders

The government has wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers money on obsolete and ineffective computer equipment, according to a new report published by the Commons public accounts committee Wednesday.

The report highlights no less than 25 different governmental projects involving computers that have been unsuccessful and even abandoned because of inefficiency. It makes particular reference to recent scandals concerning the notoriously inefficient computer systems processing national insurance contributions and passport applications.

The report makes the following damning conclusion of the government's recent track record of implementing IT projects: "This report draws out lessons from more than 25 cases from the 1990s where the implementation of IT systems has resulted in delay, confusion and inconvenience to the citizen and, in many cases, poor value for money to the taxpayer."

A full version of the Commons report can be found at the Web parliament stationary office here.

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