The Federal Court of Auditors sees black as the most comprehensive and expensive digital project of the Federal Government: the modernization and standardization of the IT landscape in nearly 200 federal agencies and the ministries. If the current problems and deficiencies are not eliminated, "the project threatens to fail," write the auditors in a confidential report from the end of May, which is the SPIEGEL.
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It is the devastating interim balance of a mammoth project, which should clear up with an uncontrollable wild growth. For decades ministries and federal agencies had independently procured computers and software. Overall, the federal IT ran in at least 96 data centers and 1245 server rooms, which were distributed nationwide. Nobody still had the overview.
In May 2015, the Federal Cabinet therefore decided on the so-called IT consolidation of the federal government: Ten years it wanted to take their time, a budget of one billion euros planned them. Both were apparently naive. In any case, even four years after the start of the project, state IT is still what it was before: a crisis zone.
Time planning "can no longer be adhered to"
The project "has not achieved any substantial project progress since 2018", the auditors of the Court of Auditors wrote in their 90-page report that the previous timetable was "no longer adhered to" and "unrealistic". Above all, the financial risks for the federal budget are still "far greater than currently assumed". Already last year it had become known that the planned costs should rise to 3.43 billion euros.
The project management for the so-called IT consolidation federal government lies in the Ministry of the Interior, which, however, has no authority over the contracted federal service providers. They are located at the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense. The result: there is no real control, but blockages and a management mess.
The Committee on Budgets has already reacted and blocked significant parts of the additional costs. At least since this spring, therefore, important parts of the project "shut down in order" and "set", as it says in internal letters.
Deputy Perli: "A billions grave for the taxpayer"
He understands that in view of the "serious additional costs now everything must be put to the test," says the responsible IT representative of the Federal Government, State Secretary Klaus Vitt the SPIEGEL. The path taken, however, was in his view "no alternative". At some point, the authorities would have to renew their systems. "If they do it on their own, it gets even more expensive." The Ministry of Finance states that the government is currently "intensively" reviewing various models and procedures to solve the problems. "A result of these tests does not exist yet".
The digital political spokesman of the FDP parliamentary group, Manuel Höferlin, admonishes: "We can not allow ourselves any further delay in the consolidation of the federal IT". Interior Minister Horst Seehofer must now "wake up and act".
Even parliamentarians such as the budget expert of the left, Victor Perli, lose patience: "The federal government is unable to put the IT equipment of the federal authorities on solid feet," he scolds. The project was "already a billions grave for the taxpayer, an end to the cost increase is not in sight." His colleague Tobias Lindner of the Greens criticizes the German government for having started the project "far too blue-eyed".
The CSU housekeeper Reinhard Brandl believes the consolidation is right and necessary: "After all, we have now for the first time an overview of the total cost." In the future, he would settle controlling at the top, with Chancellery head Helge Braun.
However, there is one industry that is benefiting from the current misery: external consultants. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, around ten million euros went to consulting companies for the 2016 project, compared to 26.2 a year later. Last year consultancy costs rose to 31 million euros.
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