MoD accused of wasting £34m on high-tech white elephant

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) poured £34.6m into an IT system which was never used, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) - the organisation which monitors central government spending.

The MoD commissioned the Data Sciences-built system for its intelligence staff, but it ran into so many delays that it was delivered two years late. The result failed to meet users' needs and was abandoned in 1996, according to Sir John Bourne, head of the NAO. Subsequently, the department has installed an off-the-shelf replacement, costing only £6m.

Data Sciences has since been acquired by IBM, but has been required to pay the government £1.8m compensation.

The MoD is taking a philosophical view of the whole affair. A spokesman said: "The system was found to be obsolete, so we took the right decision to abandon it. Lessons have been learned: in future we will set more achievable targets."

The MoD spokesman said the biggest fault in the system concerned security issues. "The delays were due to it being a very complex system which demanded very high levels of security. Our changing business needs and the fast pace of development in security technology meant the system that was delivered failed to meet users' needs." The system had been rendered out of date by new health and safety legislation, he added.

Data Sciences, and new owner IBM, were unavailable for comment at the time of publishing.