THE DEPARTMENT for Work and Pensions has admitted the true cost over-runs of its IT projects.

Well, almost.

In answer to another in a long series of parliamentary Written Questions posted by the Liberal Democrats, the DWP said last month that its 15 most significant IT projects were a total of £315 million over budget.

Had the DWP fessed to the true extent of IT cost over-runs, the figure might have been £2billion.

Dr. Peter Clark, a government IT analyst at Ovum Holway, didn't want to know about this. Haven't we heard it all already, he said.

What, the one about the Child Support Agency being one of the most horrendously bodged public sector IT projects in the history of computing? In dribs and drabs we have, yes.

But the Libdems asked for an update, and the government gave only a partial response. The running total is illuminating. And any attempt to hide the accumulated cost not only spares the government embarrassment, but also thwarts our attempt to consider the true cost of bungled IT projects that use public money that might be better spent elsewhere.

So here it is in all its gory detail.

Last month, The DWP said the cost of the Child Support Agencies' Operational Improvement Plan (OIP) at £110 million. The true cost, the department admitted in answer to a followup Libdem question this week, was in fact budgeted at £320 million.

It listed this as an on-budget figure. But we all know that the OIP is merely intended to patch the defunct CSA computer system up for a few years while the department produces another one that works. It is by definition a budget over-run of the last attempt to patch the CSA computer system up, which cost £539 million.

By that reckoning, the £866million being spent establishing the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (which is otherwise known as CSA v4.0 because the last computer system was so bodged that the whole department had to be earmarked or the knackers yard) is also a budget
over-run.

That brings the total over-budget cost of the CSA to £1.7 billion. Add to that the cost over-runs that the DWP admitted to last month and, voila, we have a grand total in excess of £2 billion. For one department.

And these were just the major projects that the DWP included in its reckonings.

The Limp-dems poked fun at the DWP's paltry £315 milion budget over-run last month, with Vince Cable, their shadow chancellor calling it evidence of "utter shambles ". The Identity card project was going to be no different, he said.

Is it already time also to forget the NHS National Programme for IT, which is costing £12.4 billion and counting, but was originally budgeted at just £2.3 billion?

Is it time to forgive and forget? The costs for these and other major IT projects are still accumulating. We could have had a few more pointless wars for that sort of money. µ