"The multi-million pound flagship IT project on which ministers are relying for their public sector efficiency drive is in crisis and could be scrapped, The Herald has learned. The programme to computerise personnel services across all Scottish Executive civil service departments prompted concern among MSPs on the Holyrood finance committee last year when it was costed at £7m. Now, with costs continuing to rise and doubts over whether the whole "e-HR Transformation Project" is now deliverable, an internal investigation has been launched in private, headed by a senior civil servant from the Crown Office. The crisis is an embarrassment for Tom McCabe, minister for finance and public service reform, who, like his predecessor, Andy Kerr, vowed Scotland would more than match Whitehall efficiency savings under the Gershon review. After merging 26 computer systems into one, the new e-HR set-up was meant to allow senior civil servants to see at a glance what staff were available and with which skills in order to deploy them into new policy areas...Now, it is understood the cost is already above £8m, the figure it was meant to contribute to efficiency savings. It also joins a list of government IT projects across the UK that have run into problems or failed to make predicted savings."
A personnel system? Why on earth did the Executive need to develop its own personnel computer system? Every sizeable organisation in the world has a personnel computer system but none of them was good enough for the Executive. Every computer software house in the world will sell you an already-developed personnel system but no, the Executive had to develop its own.
No comments:
Post a Comment