The extra costs are accounted for with £203 million for post-contract verification adjustment, £533 million for workload increases, including new work completed, on-going and projected and £248 million inflation. There was also a further £409 million in projected capital spending.

The report suggested that the Revenue mandarins were prepared to blame their new political masters for the over-spend. It said: "The Department told us that the contract had been signed some three years before the advent of a new Government which had introduced new polices, requiring information technology support, and that the majority of the additional costs were accounted for by such new work. The remainder was accounted for by inflation and by a post-contract verification adjustment."

The report explained that the Inland Revenue's contract with EDS was not a fixed-price contract, 'reflecting the fact that it was difficult for the Department to predict with any degree of certainty the size or nature of its long-term information technology requirements.'

The report also suggested that the close relationship between the Inland Revenue and the EDS, had meant that the former was not making as objective assessments on the latter as it should.

Meanwhile, within the same 24 hour period that the Revenue was getting its wrist slapped for being careless with more than £2 billion of tax-payers money, Government Ministers were popping up to issue press notices and make speeches about how well the Government was doing with its IT targets.

First on the scene the evening before (July 11) was Cabinet Office Minister, Mo Mowlam, presenting the New Statesman New Media awards, who reminded the audience of the Government's commitment to open up Internet access to all sectors of the community, including the poorer familes, schools and libraries.

Next came another Cabinet Office Minister, Ian McCartney, the same day as the report (July 12) to announce that one-third of all Government services are now available online with the figure set to rise to nearly 75 per cent in the next two years - with a new progress report revealing that of 457 services delivered to business and citizens, 152 services are available online now and 326 services will be by 2002.

This co-incided with new National Statistics figures which show over the first three months of 2000, an average of 6.5 million households in the UK (25 per cent) could access the internet from home computer - double the number in the first three months of 1999.

Making reference to this report, but avoiding any mention of the PAC, Mr McCartney said: "This new report shows that we are making significant progress towards our goal of delivering all Government services online by 2005. There is still a great deal of work to be done, but the pace of change has been stepped up considerably in recent months.

"Of the services offered, most are currently information-based rather than transactional. But many more online services will be rolled out in coming months in areas such as health, jobs and to business. We will also launch our groundbreaking ukonline.gov.uk citizens portal later this year - a single electronic point of access, which will be able to offer a unique window on Government through a personalisable homepage."

The Government's e-envoy, Alex Allan, was next to praise the 'e-Government'. Speaking at the e-business summit 2000, Mr Allan refered to a new international e-Government benchmarking study which portrayed the UK as an emerging e-Government nation.

The international benchmarking report reveals keys lessons
for Government as the agenda is driven forward and many more pioneering services are launched in the coming months. It examines e-Government in more than a dozen countries across the world.

Mr Allan said: "New international comparisons reveal Britain is an emerging e-Government nation. We are currently equivalent to champions of football's first division - behind the Manchester Uniteds from Scandinavia and the Southern hemisphere, but ahead of many others.

"But it shows we have the potential to push for the Premiership title in the future. We are putting the structures in place and have the high-level commitment needed to see us catapulted to the top in coming years."

The report highlights many key lessons for the public sector drawn from examples of best practice across the world, including piloting projects first to avoid problems and hitches which could undermine and shake public confidence in a service.

And finally, when one IT supplier was getting a public rebuke, another was celebrating following the announcement (July 12) of a multi-million contract from Government. The Home Office selected Sirius as the winner of its IT2000 £350 million ten year contract for the delivery of business consultancy and IT services. Sirius is a consortium of ICL, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Global Crossing.

The IT 2000 public-private sector partnership will allow the Home Office to be 'at the forefront of the introduction of
e-Government, to maximise the delivery of many of its services and to improve the efficiency of the Department'.

Under the deal, Sirius will take responsibility for owning, operating and sustaining the Home Office IT infrastructure
and telephone systems. Together, the Home Office and Sirius will identify and implement IT-enabled business changes to improve the delivery of Home Office aims.

The Home Office announcement said: "The partnership will enable the systematic introduction of new processes and ways of working using the most up-to-date and relevant technology. The transfer of IT and business change skills to Home Office staff will be a feature of the PFI partnership, which embodies the lessons learned in recent years from the introduction of new IT systems into Government."
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Susie Hughes