It’s nice to see a government pursue the so-called “cutting edge of technology” on taxpayers’ behalf. But, all too often, that cutting edge inadvertently ends up injuring those same taxpayers.

That’s certainly been the case lately in British Columbia, especially when it comes to information technology (IT) projects.

In fact, provincial government-led IT projects that end up crashing and burning have reached a state at which B.C. Auditor General Carol Bellringer now plans a full review of IT projects across the province to find out why so many are falling behind schedule, running seriously overbudget and failing to meet their original objectives.

Over the past few years, the AG has published a number of reports highly critical of B.C.’s management of major IT projects in sectors such as health care and other social services, which, more often than not, end up as overspending, underperforming embarrassments.

And often, when these IT glitches became public knowledge, Victoria immediately adopted a strategy of denial.

The latest AG report on troubled IT projects was released in August and concerned the Panorama Public Health System, which was designed to improve management of communicable disease outbreaks, such as SARS, and immunization programs across the country.

The report noted that unlike other jurisdictions in Canada, which are moving ahead on this front, B.C. is struggling. “The [B.C.] project is five years late, incomplete, riddled with deficiencies and much of the technology may already be outdated,” Bellringer wrote. “It is inefficient to use, burdensome to public health staff and requires ongoing financial support.”

So far, Panorama has cost B.C. taxpayers at least $113 million, which puts it 420% overbudget, the AG says. The AG also pointed out that when the contractor, IBM Canada Ltd., could not deliver on the original contract, the B.C. Ministry of Health did not consider other options, such as a contract termination. Instead, the ministry “renegotiated with IBM in a way that transferred financial risk from IBM to taxpayers.”

Earlier in August, thanks to the release of Freedom of Information documents, British Columbians also learned that the $842-million Clinical Systems and Transformation IT project also was in deep trouble. This 10-year project is supposed to integrate software systems among all hospitals and health facilities in the Provincial Health Services Authority, Vancouver Coastal Health and Providence Health Care. Instead, the project has been mired in critical shortfalls and is a year behind schedule.

An external review of this project by North York Hospital in Toronto offers some insight into where B.C.’s troubled half-dozen or so IT projects are running off the rails. The review found there are too many consultants rushing the design and build process and, at the end of the day, people assigned to support and administer the system are “lacking a fundamental understanding of design and … knowledge of the system for maintenance purposes.”

Even though Victoria often ignored early warnings about these faltering projects in the past, B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake now says steps are being taken to fix the project shortfalls. Yet, he continues to stress it’s not unusual to have massive risks and challenges with these IT projects.

In other words, it appears as if “Oops” is still acceptable.

© 2015 Investment Executive. All rights reserved.