Ministry of Defence, Department of Work and Pensions and others disclose multimillion pound IT cancellations

The government has revealed details of public sector IT projects that were scrapped in the past five years, following an enquiry by a member of parliament.

The most significant of these contracts were tied to the already well-publicised, ill-fated centralised NHS IT programme. The Department of Health's decision to cancel a £1.1 billion local service provider agreement with Fujitsu two years ago was the highest value individual deal.

The Ministry of Defence said that it had cancelled its £4.8 million Land Information Architecture Office IT project following an internal spending review, it disclosed in response to MP Pete Wishart's parliamentary question.

The Department of Work and Pensions confirmed it had abandoned a £6.2 million contract management services contract order made with IBM.

Several smaller, previously undisclosed cancellations were also revealed. In 2007, the Rural Payments Agency abandoned a broadband contract worth £870,000. A year later, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs agency Kew Gardens scrapped a back office project valued at £100,000.

Scottish National Party MP Wishart wrote to several Whitehall departments for details on IT deals that had been cancelled or abandoned during the past five years.

The Home Office, the Foreign Office, the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and the Department for Culture all said that they had not cancelled any IT deals within the past five years.

Last month, the coalition government announced that it will no longer pursuse the centralised NPfIT project, although many component systems are still being built.

Source: http://www.information-age.com/channels/data-centre-and-it-infrastructure/news/1289368/govt-departments-reveal-cancelled-it-projects.thtml