South Wales Evening Post - 7 August 2008
Councillors investigating a controversial multi-million pound IT scheme say too much money was spent on external consultants.
A long-awaited report has criticised the £4 million paid by the authority for advice from external consultants on its £83 million eGovernment programme.
The programme was projected to deliver around £17 million worth of efficiency savings which have never materialised.
The criticism is just one included in a report by Swansea Council's Performance Scrutiny Board into the delivery of the eGovernment programme, following a deal struck with city-based IT firm CapGemini in 2005.
The board's report was due to be discussed by the council's cabinet today.
The study, put together by board chairman Rene Kinzett and vice-chairman Mark Child, concludes that the eGovernment programme "was an ambitious project which could have been more effectively delivered through a series of smaller projects".
The report also criticises the spending of some £4 million on external advisers, and the use of a small number of people to drive the project forward.
It states: "The lack of robust and balanced independent advice to, and appropriate training of, cabinet members, was to the detriment of good political decision-making."
The report contains nine recommendations, seven of which have been agreed and one that was partly agreed by cabinet member for business improvement and efficiency Mary Jones.
Responding to the report, Councillor Jones said: "I would like to thank the board for their work.
"It is in-depth, and it will be taken on board for other projects being carried out within the authority."
The recommendation that has not been agreed by the cabinet member concerns keeping the council's financial and legal officers - the 151 officers and monitoring officers - separate from the project sponsor and manager.
Councillor Jones said: "They actually have legal rights within the council's constitution.
"They don't work for the administration or any political party.
"They are advisers to the whole council and they are independent."
The council's IT deal with CapGemini has caused controversy ever since it was first announced.
The council's technology workers went on strike over the proposals because of fears over job cuts.
But officers insisted the scheme would improve the council's computer systems and save hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money in the long-term.
Three years on, the payroll section of the programme has been abandoned, and the scheme has not delivered the savings the council hoped when the eGovernment project was first announced.
