The obvious decision finally has been made: the £400+ million UK government's FiReControl project has finally been canned, various news outlets in the UK like the BBC are reporting.
The FiReControl project, which was to integrate 46 stand-alone fire department control rooms into 9 regional centers, was originally initiated in March 2004 and slated to be completed by November of 2007. The government promised at the time that it would use "tried and tested" technology to ensure that a rapid (and cost contained) implementation would ensue. That didn't happen, as costs have exploded from the original project estimate of £100 million to £423 million with a rollout beginning in 2011 and completing by the end of 2012.
Even though the Fire Services Minister admitted earlier this year that the project was bungled from the very start, the government decided to try to get it finished by next year anyway. It became increasingly obvious over the past few months that this was never going to happen, so the government and the prime contractor, EADS Defense & Security Division (now called Cassidian), reached a mutually satisfactory agreement to end the contract.
As explained by the Fire Minister Bob Neill,
"Following extensive discussion with Cassidian, we have jointly concluded, with regret, that the requirements of the project cannot be delivered to an acceptable timeframe... Therefore the best outcome for the taxpayer and the fire and rescue community is for the contract to be terminated with immediate effect."
The Fire Minister refused to disclose, however, the compensation that the government has agreed to pay EADS for terminating the contract, citing "commercial confidentiality."
The government has already paid out some £230 million for the project and received virtually nothing for it. Labour MP John McDonnell, secretary of the Fire Brigades Union's parliamentary group, claims that as much as £1.3 billion may be closer to the true amount wasted in costs and lost staff morale reports the Yorkshire Post.
Ouch.
Paying more than a £1 in compensation is probably seen as excessive for many UK taxpayers.
Robert N. Charette is a Contributing Editor to IEEE Spectrum and an acknowledged international authority on information technology and systems risk management. A self-described “risk ecologist,” he is interested in the intersections of business, political, technological, and societal risks. Charette is an award-winning author of multiple books and numerous articles on the subjects of risk management, project and program management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. A Life Senior Member of the IEEE, Charette was a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Golden Core Award in 2008.
