MoD criticised over IT project

A Ministry of Defence programme for a new computer system is running 18 months late and is set to exceed its budget by £182m, according to the National Audit Office.

The spending watchdog called for "concerted action" on the £7.1bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme.

The DII is intended to replace more than 300 different computer systems for the armed forces and the MoD.

It will eventually be used on Royal Navy warships and with British forces deployed overseas, across 150,000 computer terminals at more than 2,000 locations.

Some 62,800 terminals were supposed to be installed by the end of July 2007, but only 29,000 are in place so far.

Friday's report said the system had been affected by "inefficient processes for software design" and that the process for rolling it out was "inappropriate and unresponsive".

The head of the NAO, Tim Burr, said: "It was always going to be a demanding task for the Ministry of Defence to replace its diverse information technology with a single, high quality system.

"The MoD started with a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve and acted to address known risks. But the programme has run into difficulties and further concerted action will be needed to increase the rate of roll-out of terminals and to deliver the remaining software."

And Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, called for the MoD to "pull out all the stops to get the programme back on track".

"The project started with good intentions: it aimed to identify and avoid the risks that have dogged other government IT projects over the years," he said.

"It is therefore disappointing that it has suffered problems with its rollout of hardware and software.

"First-rate, reliable IT equipment is vital for both our troops on the ground and the staff supporting them. This project has already delivered some welcome benefits.

"However, the MoD needs to work hard to ensure that the programme is installed as quickly as possible, without any further cost increases."

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey said the report was "evidence of the government's incompetence when it comes to the procurement of major IT contracts".

"It is especially worrying that the risk of escalating costs threatens the MoD's ability to meet the programme's requirements," he said.

"At a time when our armed services are already massively overstretched abroad, Britain cannot afford a further drain on its defence budget."