The Liberal Democrats have blasted the Government for overspending on IT projects by over £1bn in the last five years.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has gone the furthest over budget, overspending by £785m. According to the Liberals, Defra is the department with the least control over its budgets, with IT projects 46.3 percent over budget, overspending by £62.4m.
Liberal Democrat shadow environment secretary Chris Huhne MP said that the Government "must get a grip on its finances. Government IT projects have long been the laughing stock of the private sector, but this billion-pound overspend is beyond a joke," said Huhne. "If the Ministry of Defence can waste nearly £800m on IT overspend, we can have little confidence that the £20bn Trident replacement will be delivered to budget."
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However, the Cabinet Office downplayed the news, saying that it spent £12.4bn a year on IT projects, and that £1bn over five years was a small percentage of the total. It said the military IT overspend was mainly due to a change in specifications for one project. The MoD had originally budgeted for two satellites but had then ordered two more, at a cost of £885m.
The Liberal Democrats said that the Home Office had overspent on IT projects by £18.2m. The Home Office could not provide a breakdown of individual project costs as this data "is not held centrally and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost".
The Government had provided the figures in response to parliamentary questions from Huhne.
