UK govt freezes ICT projects

Information Age.

The National Audit Office (NAO) discovered only four in 50 UK government departments gave their CIO a seat on the executive board.

During an investigation, the NAO found that project governance is 'fragmented', which was revealed by the high number of ICT projects failing to deliver business benefits within the past decade.

Silicon.com says the verdict from the NAO report is not encouraging. NAO states: “To date, progress delivering shared services by consolidating back-office systems has been patchy and expected benefits have not been realised.”

Computer World says the NAO report revealed two government ICT projects budgeted at nearly £2 billion, were stopped. In addition, 229 ICT projects were discontinued by departments.

According to the NAO, cancelling these projects could realise budget reductions of up to £1 billion over the next five years.