UK Public Sector Shared Services Project Cost Tax Payer £81 Million
The Department of Transport has been guilty of ‘stupendous incompetence', according to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee after learning of massive project failings made when implementing the shared services IT system.
The computer system was inadequately procured and tested, and unstable when it was switched on. On one occasion the system issued messages in German, says a report published by the Public Accounts Committee on 16 December, 2008.
The committee said the project was "one of the worst" it has seen and blamed the Department for Transport's senior management.
"Remember that this was an efficiency drive aimed at saving £57m by 2015. It now looks like the taxpayer will have to stump up £81m to pay for it," said Edward Leigh, chair of the committee.
The project to set up an in-house centralised shared services centre in Swansea was approved in April 2005, with the aim of providing human resources, payroll and finance support to the central department and its agencies.
