MPs slam "appalling waste of public money" on failed IT projects

MPs have called for the "cloak of commercial confidentiality" to be lifted after an eight-month inquiry slammed the "appalling" waste of taxpayers money on failed government IT projects.

The Work and Pensions select committee inquiry into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) IT modernisation programme was launched following high-profile problems with the new Child Support Agency (CSA) system run by EDS.

The report, out today, brands the new CSA computer system, known as CS2, "over-spec, over-budget and over-due" and recommends the DWP scrap it if the system is not fully operational for new cases by the end of the year.

"In our view, abandonment of the CS2 project is preferable to stubbornly continuing with the present situation only to abandon it later when the recovery plan falters."

CS2 is now estimated to have cost £456m and is processing new claims so slowly that the backlog of new work is increasing by 30,000 cases a quarter, according to the report.

The report makes 36 conclusions and the main recommendation for improving the success rate of IT systems is around accountability.

"CS2 demonstrates the lack of accountability that exists, even for defective systems. Although CS2 has been subject to a number of reviews, we have not been given access to these reviews on grounds of confidentiality – which is certainly convenient for the Department and makes us suspicious," the report said.

Liberal Democrat MP Sir Archy Kirkwood, chair of the cross-party select committee, said there is an urgent need for more transparency and for the Office of Government Commerce's powers to be strengthened.

"Failing IT systems are an appalling waste of public money and cause distress to thousands of people," he said in the report. "Government has produced a mountain of guidance to encourage successful IT projects, but there's no way for Parliament or the public to know whether it's being followed – until the IT fails and then it's too late."

According to the report, the DWP has spent £4.25bn on IT projects since 2001 and expenditure on government IT projects as a whole in 2003/2004 is in excess of £12.4bn.