A new computer system designed to integrate public services has cost the exchequer a massive €37m despite being originally budgeted at just €14m. Its annual running costs have soared to a further €15m a year.
And another plan to develop a "health portal" to provide information about illnesses, health advice and contact details for health services had to be abandoned at a further cost of €2m to taxpayers.
Plans to provide on-line applications for housing grants, passports, haulage licences and driving licences also had to be abandoned due to concerns over identification.
Vital
The opposition parties described the latest overspending -- revealed in a report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) -- as another "PPARS-style" fiasco.
Labour communications spokeswoman Liz McManus last night said the report raised "serious questions" over the Government's ability to oversee vital information technology projects.
"When taken in context of PPARS and the e-voting fiasco, the report doesn't provide great assurance that the Government has learned the necessary hard lessons," she said.
"We get an awful lot of rhetoric and flourish about e- Government but the reality is that the Government's record is pretty incompetent. The amount of waste that has built up, when you think of PPARS, when you think of electronic voting."
The Public Services Broker System was central to e- Government plans. However, despite the massive €23m cost overrun, it is still only capable delivering a "small number" of services to the public at the www.reach.ie website.
There have also been complaints from government departments about the system's effectiveness for sharing information. The hard-hitting report by CAG John Purcell found that 'Broker' was delivered 16 months late in 2005.
The huge overspend was blamed on:
- A delay in increasing the number of staff.
- Too much reliance on external contractors.
- Delays in clarifying the long-term requirements for the system.
- Conflicting responsibilities.
According to the report, the services offered to the public by www.reach.ie are "quite limited" -- such as making online discrimination complaints to the Equality Tribunal or on-line applications for Arts Council grants.
The detailed CAG report, which studied 36 government departments and agencies, found that more than €420m had been spent on e-projects between 2000 and 2005.
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Quelle/Source: Irish Independent, 08.01.2008
