National Audit Office to look at public sector IT successes

Government spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) is to report on successful public sector technology programmes, and outline lessons that can be learned for the future.

Following discussions with the Cabinet Office’s head of egovernment, Ian Watmore, the NAO is to investigate between 10 and 20 projects, and publish a report next year.

‘The aim is to identify the common themes of successful projects,’ Watmore told Computing.

The eGovernment Unit is compiling a list of suitable candidates to recommend to the NAO. One potential nominee is the Crown Prosecution Service’s Compass case management programme, which recently completed the final stage of Whitehall’s Gateway monitoring process.

Other possibilities include the Planning Portal, a web-based one-stop-shop for planning information and services, and the NHS Logistics Authority eSupply programme, which is saving more than £100m a year on bulk procurement.

Watmore also hopes to include more controversial programmes that at one time were considered examples of failure.

‘I would like the NAO to go back and review the passports system, which has been a world-class success for so many years now,’ he said.

When the application system supplied to the Passport Agency by Siemens went live in 1999, slow running times caused huge backlogs and delays in applications. The system has long been touted as an example of a typical public sector IT disaster, but since the initial problems were sorted out it has been hugely successful, says Watmore.

The NAO says IT-enabled business change is crucial for improving public services, and for reaching the government’s target of efficiency savings of £21bn per year by 2007/8. The report aims to build on the agency’s earlier work and draw out lessons to be applied by other departments.

The government spends more than £2bn every year on new technology programmes.