South Wales Evening Post - 12 June 2007
Senior staff at Swansea Council have been asked to give evidence in a review of a controversial £83 million IT scheme.
Several department heads have been invited to take part in a meeting with councillors tomorrow. The move follows a highly critical report into the way council handled the contract talks for its eGovernment scheme.
Projected savings for the scheme have been slashed, meaning that instead of saving money for council tax payers the IT scheme will be lucky to break even.
Councillor Mark Child, the vice- chairman of the committee, said he hoped to find out how the original figures were reached. He said: " We want to know how much they were involved in arriving at the original savings figures, and why those savings have not been achieved."
Tomorrow's meeting is the latest to look at the council's IT scheme.
The deal, with Swansea-based IT firm Capgemini, was designed to replace the council's ageing computer systems.
However, as well as bringing new computers and software to the council the project also promised to make millions of pounds worth of savings by improving efficiency. The actual figures are now likely to be much lower than promised.
Heads of service for finance, environment, social service and housing, and adult service will all be asked to give evidence.
A number of department heads wrote to the council's former chief executive Tim Thorogood to say they were not convinced by projected savings.
Councillor Child said: "Hopefully, they will be able to throw light on how theses figures were arrived at. Whether there was a target that had to be met, or whether there was someone guiding them. We are trying to discover exactly what went on.
"Obviously these are senior figures in the council and this was a major project, so I would be surprised if they do not know anything about it. We would expect them to have had a significant involvement and knowledge of what's going on."
