Tuesday 14 March 2023

'It's Only Taxpayer Money' Pt 79248563217851

The Home Office is still unable to say when a planned communications system for Great Britain’s blue light services will be operational, despite spending almost £2bn on the project, the Whitehall spending watchdog has said.

Blimey, you could have built a few miles of a new railway line for that money! 

The proposed emergency services network (ESN), first announced in 2015, was supposed to have replaced the ageing Airwave system for police, fire and ambulance services in England, Scotland and Wales by 2020.
However, the National Audit Office (NAO) says despite the turn-off date for Airwave having been extended twice, first to 2022 and then to 2026, the Home Office now admits it is likely to be later, although it cannot say when or how much it will cost.

It is to laugh, isn't it..? 

6 comments:

ivan said...

I am not surprised since I doubt that there is anyone in the home office that has any brain cells to work with. From what we can see they should be fired and banned from working in any government job starting with the head man and working down - it might encourage the others to try harder.

Bucko said...

And people want the Government to control even more things. Anything the Government does seems to cost at least 100x more than if a private company were to do it

Mudplugger said...

Not just the Home Office, ask the MoD about the Ajax armoured vehicle or the Dept of Transport about HS2, or the Dept of Health about the Spine IT system. You could even ask Boris about those water-cannon he bought when he was London Mayor. It's funny-money, but it's ours.

Anonymous said...

Government priorities.

You just don't understand. The priorities are to reward 'favoured' people and groups with comfortable sinecures, massive stipends and (lots and lots of) graft.

Check, and I can guarantee that those (people, companies and organisation) chosen to implement this will be 'diverse' and 'vote the right way'. They will also be doing well off that 2 bn, not be in any hurry to actually complete any system (let alone a working one - how else are hey to ensure years/decades of "support and upgrades" earnings?) and nobody cares since the politicians and bureaucrats involved 'will' be getting both a kick-back and be in line for a directorship on 'retiring'.

In other words, SSDD.

If you can point to a single instance where this 'wasn't' the modus operandi of government projects (forever), I may die of shock.

Doonhamer said...

Elon Musk would have let them use his Starlink system for less than twice that and it would still be cheaper than our eventual cost of a crap system.
Apparently any one in Ukraine can talk to anyone in USA.
Meanwhile our great and good are considering which wood will be most environmentally friendly for the cleft stick. Later they will consider what colour it should be.
The Golgafrinchans of the Ark Fleet B, and their consideration of invention of fire and the wheel are their heroes.

JuliaM said...

"From what we can see they should be fired and banned from working in any government job..."

If only..!

"And people want the Government to control even more things."

The very definition of insanity!

"Not just the Home Office, ask the MoD about the Ajax armoured vehicle or the Dept of Transport about HS2, or the Dept of Health about the Spine IT system."

Government IT contracts are the Third Rail of politics, but sadly, it's us taxpayers who get the shock...

"The priorities are to reward 'favoured' people and groups with comfortable sinecures, massive stipends and (lots and lots of) graft."

Oh, indeed!

"Elon Musk would have let them use his Starlink system for less than twice that and it would still be cheaper than our eventual cost of a crap system."

And we all know why they wouldn't have gone for that...