South Wales Evening Post - 8 December 2006
The majority of Swansea councillors believe a controversial £83 million IT scheme is not delivering.
Taxpayers are picking up the tab for the eGovernment programme which replaced the council's out-of-date computer systems.
The first phase of the programme, known as resource@swansea, has been running for almost a year.
The second phase, which is designed to improve services to residents, has been postponed indefinitely because of spiralling costs.
While most councillors agree that the outdated computer systems needed replacing, many are worried by the rising cost.
Today an Evening Post survey of every member of the council shows the majority would not have voted to implement the system in its current form.
The project has been on the cards for years, but initial costs for the two phases ballooned from around £100 million to near £170 million.
A number of councillors responded to the questions we asked individually, but most left it to group leaders.
Labour leader David Phillips responded on behalf of his party.
Councillor Mary Jones gave a response from the Liberal Independent Conservative coalition.
However Councillor Jones, who is the cabinet member with responsibility for the project, failed to answer the four questions directly.
Instead she gave an overview of the scheme.Councillor Phillips did answer the questions.
When asked "Does the scheme represent value for money for residents in Swansea?", he said: "No, not at the moment.
"It could do, if properly managed, but there is too big a question mark against the validity of negotiations prior to contract signing and that it has developed into a vehicle for funding ever-more ambitious IT schemes."
Councillor Phillips added that the Labour group agreed that a new IT system was needed, but would have preferred a less expensive option.
"There is no argument that systems needed upgrading.
"But this has to be at an affordable price and realisable pace, completing one job before starting on the next.
"Currently the overall price seems excessive and its reach overambitious."
Councillor Phillips said the second phase of the scheme, service@swansea, should not go ahead.
He said: "The problems with resource@swansea, which should be the easier project to implement, should signal extreme caution, if not stop.
"This phase is consuming financial resources rather than releasing them back into services.
"The service@swansea element was designed to give residents a one-stop shop and phone line for information and services at the council.
Councillor Phillips added that the first phase had failed to live up to expectations.
"So far virtually no benefits have been felt by the people of Swansea," said Councillor Phillips.
"Indeed, far from releasing resources to improve services, it has sucked them in, leading to cuts.
"The longer it goes on, the more it seems to meet the dire warnings of ICT staff when they went on strike."
Plaid Group leader Darren Price said: "Since the decision by cabinet to outsource the IT service was taken, we have seen significant increases in costs associated with the scheme.
"I believe that the total cost for both phases now stands at around £170 million - an increase of £70 million from the original estimate.
"I have raised this a number of times at council, only to be told that all is well with the project."
