March 25: Hold bureaucrats to account for Whitehall IT blunders and farms fiasco

THE Government’s latest IT failure (The Yorkshire Post, March 21) means farmers being asked to apply for EU subsidies via the old type paper forms – a classic example of “if it ain’t broke, don’t mend it”.

However, I would like to know why those people involved in these cock-ups are not held to account for wasting our money? There have been massive Whitehall errors that appear to be continually swept under the carpet and played down.

Is it the inept IT companies who fail to design the software correctly and who should be made to absorb the cost for their errors, or is the ministerial department which instigated the idea and failed to do adequate research to encompass all possibilities to enable a smooth transition from paper to on-line?

For every pound squeezed from the taxpayer, it appears that the Government is happily squandering millions behind the scenes – and that’s not taking into account the billions wasted by the MoD on failed projects, over-ordering, and equipment ordered that is woefully ill-suited to the job it is required to do. Need I say more?

Accountability and good management is what we need, not cover-ups to save the job of some overpaid bureaucrat.