Here’s a great story from Computer Weekly 4th December, 07.

“The government is to bring its 951 websites down to two sites to save money…”

Some of us argued years ago ‘what is the point of all these government websites’ - but why take any notice if there’s a bottomless pit of taxpayers money?

Here’s the best bit:

‘Alexis Cleveland, director general of Transformational Government….said it was not possible to say how much money the government might save.

She said it was “very difficult” to establish the costs of setting up the websites…

“We have no audit trail of costs and therefore cannot establish the savings”.

Well here’s a suggestion that won’t cost much and could save millions. Get everyone working on these projects - particularly expensive consultants - to fill in a daily time sheet with an hourly record of what they’ve been doing. If nothing else, this will help prevent consultants putting in invoices for ‘a day’ which consists of 3 - 4 hours.

Frontline (and much cheaper) members of staff have to account for their time - so why not people on big ‘day rates’?

‘No audit trail of costs’ -imagine applying that policy to the provision of health care or providing care to the elderly?