It’s that time of the year when all and sundry start making lists (lists! categories!) of their favourite events, arts, music, books and so on from the year. Well without a doubt my favourite music is Beethoven’s 9th symphony; followed by the 3rd and then the 5th. I have listened to the 9th over and over again on long distance train journeys, late into the night and during busy afternoons of working. At some point during this repeated listening something clicked; I suddenly got bitten by a very powerful cultural phenomena. My favourite paintings are from the Renaissance. But more of this later; maybe next week when I’ve put my feet up and have time to think properly. This is about my favourite *efficiencies* story. There has been a lot of competition.

The NHS IT project has being doing well. Total budget of £12 billion (?) and ….I think three primary care trusts and one hospital might be connected. I have some local examples that I’d better keep to myself. Hard times are the wrong times to bite the hand that feeds (too hard).

So step forward the Department for Transport. Yesterday, the Financial Times started an article with these memorable words:

“A government back-office project meant to achieve Vorsprung durch Technic has turned into Gotterdammerung, according to Parliament’s public spending watchdog”.

Here’s a bullet list of the main points:

- it was meant to produce savings of £57 million

- instead it will cost the tax payer around an extra £81 million

- one of the problems was that staff seeking help got replies in German

- password reminders came up in German

The chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Edward Leigh, said; “This is one of the worst cases of project management seen by this committee”.

I quote here from the FT:

“It (the Department of Transport) did not subject the project to tender, instead using and existing contract with IBM. Nor did it precisely specificy the requirements”

The ‘efficiency’ savings are never going to happen. The net cost to the taxpayer is going to be around £81 million.

Yet another example of the efficiencies ideology triumphing over a methodological approach based on a proper understanding of technical environments and how to manage and control suppliers.

I don’t know, but if I ever discover that ‘PRINCE2′ was involved then I might, just might lodge a complaint with the government (how does one do that?). Anyway, it’s at least worth an FOI request to discover what the decision making process was.

And if anyone is reading this because they have googled ‘bad procurement projects’ – be assured that it doesn’t need to be done badly. Managed in the right way, procurement can save a great deal of money and aggravation. But to do that you need people who can think; not just people who can fill in project documentation. The recession is going to create more demand for the former.  

If you really want help saving money, email me at danny at beingdigital dot co dot uk