New review procedure to end high profile Government IT disasters

The Treasury has announced that the Office of Government Commerce's Gateway Review Process procedure will be applied to all future public sector IT projects to prevent further IT disasters.

Speaking of the Government's recent failures, Andrew Smith, Chief Secretary to the Treasury said: "Failure in big projects doesn't come cheap and is no longer a concept that the public is prepared to accept in the development and construction of major Government projects. Poor procurement leads to the waste of public finances. That is why the Gateway makes commercial common sense."

The Treasury has stated that the process 'has identified potential savings which could amount to up to £150 million,' adding that 'The figure is expected to rise to £500 million annually once the full roll out of new projects takes effect in 3-4 years time.'

The Gateway Review Process is being managed and operated along private sector lines and will mean that major Government acquisition projects, including those involving construction, IT and PFI, will have to pass through a series of five 'gates' at key stages. The five gates are:

• Gate 1 - justify business case;
  
• Gate 2 - approve procurement method;
  
• Gate 3 - approve award of contract;
  
• Gate 4 - test whether project is ready to go live;
  
• Gate 5 - identify if project has delivered planned benefits.

"The Gateway Process," Andrew Smith said, "can be applied to every major Government project. Such projects will pass through each 'gate', only when rigorous tests have been met. Through the Office of Government Commerce we now have a commercially-minded, reliable management system."

Ian McCartney, the Minister responsible for e-Government, added his support for the initiative saying: "I welcome the launch of the OGC Gateway Review process. It provides a clear and sensible process to assure project management and development and to secure ultimate success."

"With the publication of 'Successful IT: Modernising Government in Action' and the progress report last year, the Government is implementing one of the most comprehensive programmes ever to improve the delivery of Government projects enabled by IT."

The news follows the recent announcement that Siemens Business Services and the Home Office are to be dragged before the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) once again after dropping the core of a troubled new IT system at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) at an estimated cost to the taxpayer of £80 million.

Other failures have included 1999's fiasco with Siemens Business Services and the Passport Agency, costing the public nearly £13m (including £16,000 spent on umbrellas for people who queued in the rain for their travel documents) and more recently EDS and the Inland Revenue being over budget and behind time, with current costs running at £2.4 billion.

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Richard Powell