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- The UK’s National Audit Office believes the government’s approach to technology providers needs centralized reform
- The current strategy is costing taxpayers billions and leaving the UK’s infrastructure in tatters for three decades
- The Public Accounts Committee also weighed in, stating that government departments are not “smart customers”.
In alarming news, but no surprise given his attitude to artificial intelligencethe UK government has been accused of mismanaging its technology procurement processes by failing to assess technical risks, leading to overinflated budgets that impact taxpayers and delays in implementation.
It is according to the latter report (PDF, via The Register) from the National Audit Office, the UK’s “independent public spending watchdog”.
In monitoring a range of projects including the National Law Enforcement Data Service and the Universal Credit benefits system, the NAO now estimates that the cumulative cost of the projects has risen to more than £3 billion pounds, and the United Kingdom has lost for at least 29 years of modernization.
UK Government Technology Spending Strategy
The NAO believes that the pipeline of project proposals until the award of contracts”[does] it does not work well for digital programs”, citing the fact, “departments can present investment cases without a detailed assessment of technical feasibility”, with a lack of central government guidance to address the problem.
“This results in a limited technical evaluation of contracts with minimized technical risks,” the report continues. “The complexity that emerges after the signing of contracts may be too fundamental to be handled with a change control process. the minimum requirement or cheapest resource.”
The NAO also criticized a lack of appreciation for “the complexity presented by the existing environment”, and that a pressure to deliver projects is facing the award of contracts.
Unsurprisingly, Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Parliament’s spending watchdog, is convinced that the system needs to change.
“Digital business skills are in short supply,” he said, “and the government is not making the most of the limited expertise it has. The government has mismanaged digital providers, and the center of government has not provided direction to help departments become smart customers.”
Clifton-Brown also echoed the NAO’s call for a unified strategy to approach suppliers. “Without a more strategic approach from the centre, and a procurement strategy that is fit for purpose for the digital age, the government risks wasting more money and missing the opportunity to modernize the public sector.”
