Oh Dear: Fire Service Control Rooms IT Project canned...

[milanbenes]

you're gonna luv this one...

£469m goes up in smoke as fire rooms plan ends in chaos - Telegraph

class....

'£469m goes up in smoke as fire rooms plan ends in chaos
A chaotic scheme to merge fire control rooms ended in “complete failure” costing the taxpayer almost half a billion pounds – and yet no one has been held to blame, MPs said'

'Despite the extensive failings, no one had been held to account and the careers of most "have carried on as if nothing had gone wrong". Peter Housden was permanent secretary and principal accounting officer at the Department for Communities and Local Government, which ran the project. Last year he was knighted and promoted to permanent secretary of the Scottish administration.
'

Milan.

[Sysman]

No project management according to Ze Register

The Department mistakenly assumed that the delivery of the IT system would be straightforward and could be developed through a standardised off-the-shelf product.

Here Fred, nip down to PC World and get a Fire system.

What? They don't have one?

We'd better keep quiet about it and build our own then.

They didn't even have a qualified Project Manager, by the looks of it:

The poorly designed IT contract lacked early milestones or mechanisms to effectively manage prime or sub-contractor performance. The Department allowed the contractor to deviate from the agreed approach, and when problems did emerge, it did not take timely corrective action.

[DimPrawn]

BBC News - Failed fire project wasted £469m, says committee of MPs

A project to set up nine regional control centres for fire and rescue services in England was a "complete failure" and wasted £469m, MPs say.

The public accounts committee said the Firecontrol scheme had not achieved any of its objectives and that eight of the centres were empty "white elephants".

The plan to replace 46 smaller control rooms was scrapped in December 2010.

Fire Minister Bob Neill said Labour must be held accountable for the "comprehensive failure".



And yet they are destined to win the next election with a landslide victory.....got to get out of this country.....just need to convince the wife.....alternatively I might just have to **** off anyway.....

[Troll]

There was a Labour Party bint on R4 this morning defending the un-defensible... got her knickers in a bit of a twist of why it was thought a good idea to have a national response to a cat stuck up in a tree scenario, but eventually blamed:

The Management
Consultants
Civil Service


and then finally conceded that ultimately it was Prescott's responsibility.

It also reminded me why the last government should be lined up against the wall and shot.

[JoJoGabor]

Sounds liek a typical public sector project. I'm on one now, failing for similar reasons. No clear goals. No work to actually gather requirements from users, no monitoring of risks or actions, and project is regarded as a failure. Still its small in comparison at £10m

[scooterscot]

Actually got turned down for a post on this project as the decision makers sought to fill the post internally with civil servants.

They'll never learn.

[psychocandy]

Actually got turned down for a post on this project as the decision makers sought to fill the post internally with civil servants.

They'll never learn.

LOL. So you know the uk company involved with this as well then?

[lilelvis2000]

Geez, they should'a come to me first. I've got an Access and SQL Server package at £500 that would have sorted it all out.

[scooterscot]

LOL. So you know the uk company involved with this as well then?

perhaps.

[Project Monkey]

I'd like to scream 'UNBELIEVABLE!', but sadly it isn't. This sort of thing happens all the time and its not just public sector projects. The anoying thing is the press always blame these evil 'IT Consultants' for ripping off the tax payer.