The government spent more than £225m on IT consultants last year, according to figures revealed to Parliament.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) alone spent £140m - more than half the total. Other big spenders include the Department for Trade and Industry at £24m, the Cabinet Office at £14m and the Foreign Office at £12m.
DWP blames the high consultancy costs on its extensive IT modernisation programme and new services such as Pension Credits.
But experts say that escalating spend points to a lack of investment in long-term IT skills for in-house staff.
Whitehall has run down internal expertise and stopped providing technologists with a clear career structure and attractive pay, says Institute of Directors senior government policy advisor Jim Norton.
'Departments have dug a big hole and are now at the bottom of it,' he said.
'Bringing in consultants is a very poor second best because they may understand the IT but they don't understand the department. Departments need to get back to having a proper career structure for IT professionals, acknowledging they are an important resource departments need to fulfil their role.'
Brian Jenkins MP, a member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, is calling for a central team of IT professionals.
'A serious case could be made for a cross-departmental IT team which could be the first port of call for departments with IT difficulties,' he said.
'The costs of having an in-house team, though not appropriate in all situations, would still be lower than the amount presently spent on consultants.'
Liberal Democrat IT spokesman Richard Allan said: 'Bringing consultants in to define the type of systems the department wants, and then having them leave the implementation to in-house staff, is a common, and very poor, model to adopt.'
Head of egovernment Ian Watmore told Computing the services are needed to complement existing skills.
'Government buys these services to supplement its own ranks,' he said.
'For example to cover short term peaks in workload for which it would be inefficient to have permanent staff on standby.'
Autor: Sarah Arnott
Quelle: Vnunet, 16.12.2004
