Government accused of wasting €241m on IT

THE Government was yesterday of wasting €241 million of taxpayers’ money on elaborate computer systems that do not perform properly and in many cases overran projected costs.

Fine Gael said "heads would have to roll" for the failure to stress test these major capital projects and the buck must stop with the four ministers who commissioned these faulty IT systems.

The four main State computer systems that have caused trouble and failed to deliver the proper services in the past six years include:

The Health Service Executive's (HSE) new €120 million payroll system, which put 1 million mistakenly into an employee's account.

The Forestry Services computer system, where costs rose from €5.3m to €9.2m and took 42 months longer than projected to deliver.

The disastrous evoting system, which went from an original costing of €34 million to €52 million and was then abandoned before last year's local and European elections because it was ruled unreliable.

The €60 million Garda PULSE computer system for processing offences, which has crashed frequently and been criticised by judges for leading to the courts getting details of "convictions that could not be correct".

Fine Gael said yesterday these four cases highlight how this Government has wasted taxpayers' money on elaborate computer systems that do not work properly.

Richard Bruton, finance spokesman for Fine Gael, said: "Heads have to roll for not planning these very expensive capital projects properly."

He pointed out that in the private sector, all IT projects of this size would have to undergo a rigorous stress test to ensure they meet the needs of the key users.

"But in many of these cases the political need to produce and answer to a problem lead to Government departments steaming ahead with projects and they overlooked the need for proper stress-testing of these IT systems," he said.

Responsibility for these computer calamities clearly rest with the respective ministers and this political failure to ensure to proper stress tests of these systems must be investigated, said Deputy Bruton.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, is conducting a value-for-money audit of HSE's new €120 million payroll system known as PPARS Personnel, Payroll and Related Systems.

An internal review of this system found there were "fundamental errors" in the decisions taken. Some experts claim it will take another €100 million just to make the system operational.

The Public Accounts Committee has found that the Forestry Services computer system overran in budget because this division was decentralised to Wexford and it lost all its IT staff.

The commission on e-voting stopped the system being introduced a month before the 2004 June local and European elections.

In a damning report, the commission found that system's reliability could not be established to its satisfaction and testing identified a software error that could lead to incorrect results.

Garda representative bodies have called for an independent examination of their PULSE computer system to rectify its shortcomings.

They are frustrated that the €60 million system has collapsed frequently, meaning gardaí have to rewrite all new charges by hand.