"Political pressures" override government IT safety checks

Political pressures and a lack of IT and project management skills are responsible for the high number of government IT failures, according to a new report.

But although the Government IT projects report by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) highlights key problems it says there is evidence of comparable levels of failure in the public sector.

The report said: "Private sector projects may remain unannounced until delivery, so failed or cancelled projects do not attract media attention."

High-profile problems with the Criminal Records Bureau, the Inland Revenue and National Air Traffic Services over the past five years have led to the government introducing changes to scrutinise IT projects more closely.

But the report said the six-stage "gateway" checks by the Office of Government Commerce during the procurement and delivery of public sector IT contracts, which are supposed to flag problems, are in some cases being overridden.

The report said: "It is possible for political pressures to override Gateway recommendations so, for example, projects may not be cancelled if they are of high political priority, even if given several red lights."

A lack of IT leadership skills in the civil service and the non-technical background of many managers is also a problem, according to the report.

It said: "Departments require a range of skills to scrutinise bids, keep up to date with technology, be realistic about what systems are likely to deliver, understand commercial drivers and actively manage suppliers. As government now has relatively little in-house IT capacity it may be difficult to find people with these skills."

Government departments have 100 major IT projects underway with a total value of £10bn and the POST report recommends introducing projects incrementally or delivering them in smaller 12-18 month steps.

The report said: "Breaking projects down into small, manageable steps increases the chances of success and makes contingency planning easier."

As the OGC checks and other government initiatives were only introduced after contracts for the most recent failures had been signed the report concluded the real test of the changes will come with the £2.3bn national IT programme for the NHS.