The Trillion Dollar Bonfire is smouldering in air-conditioned helicopter hangars in Wiltshire. The National Audit Office has lambasted the procurement of eight Chinook helicopters, delivered in 2001 but still not fit for their intended role. The procurement has been described as “a gold-standard cock-up” and the original budget is estimated to almost double, costing the UK Ministry of Defence nearer £500K.
It’s a fairly safe bet that the final cost will escalate further. The UK taxpayers will probably have paid a billion dollars before the helicopters enter service.
Software problems have been cited as the reason for the disappointment and unexpected cost but I believe that the underlying problem is a colossal failure in the procurement process. A failure that is also repeated many times a week in many other businesses: a lack of due diligence when procuring technology.
I have seen major symptoms of similar failures throughout my interim career, where I have had to pick up the pieces of procurement failures.
We would all be much better off if we spent more time “looking under the bonnet” before signing up for new technology and if our own people haven’t got the necessary skills to properly assess the capabilities of a technology proposal, then we should make sure we find someone who can.
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