16 January 2009
By Graham Clews
MPs have warned the Ministry of Defence that it must take steps to ensure that military personnel are not failed by the delay in implementing its new £7bn MoD-wide IT system.
The Public Accounts Committee said on January 15 that delays to the MoD's Defence Information Structure were so severe that detailed plans must be drawn up to keep existing IT systems going, with funding coming from management fees paid to the company responsible for implementing the new system.
The MoD's single new IT system is intended to replace hundreds of older systems, with 150,000 terminals being provided at more than 2,000 permanent sites, as well as on Royal Navy ships and for military personnel on operations.
The full system is due to be completed by 2015, but interim targets have been missed by significant margins.
The PAC said the delays were caused by over-optimistic assumptions about the state of the buildings where terminals were due to be installed, and an 'inappropriate and unresponsive methodology' for installing terminals.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said the DIS's implementation was 'badly planned in important respects'.
PFjan2009
