MoD IT system £182m over budget
MoD IT system £182m over budget
2008-07-04Newsfeed
The Government's spending watchdog has warned that a £7.1 billion programme to equip the armed forces with a new computer system is running 18 months behind schedule and £182 million over budget.
The Government's spending watchdog has warned that a £7.1 billion programme to equip the armed forces with a new computer system is running 18 months behind schedule and £182 million over budget.
The Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme is to supposed to replace the 300 systems currently being operated by the forces and the Ministry of Defence with a single system.
However the National Audit Office (NAO) said that "concerted action" was now needed to get the programme back on track after it became the latest major Whitehall computer project to run into difficulties.
The system is being provided by the Atlas consortium led by the US computer giant EDS which has been involved in other controversial Government IT projects.
It will eventually deliver 150,000 computer terminals at more than 2,000 locations - including on Royal Navy warships and with British forces deployed on operations overseas.
However of the 62,800 terminals which were supposed to have been installed by the end of July 2007 in the first phase of the programme, only 29,000 have so far been delivered.
The NAO said the process initially chosen for rolling out the system was "inappropriate and unresponsive" while there were problems with the software, including "inefficient processes for software design".
Copyright © The Press Association 2008
