Ja, Minister! Government blows £120million on new computer system which spouts German

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A £120million computer system supposed to make civil servants' lives easier took away their holidays, wrongly accused them of being off sick and even answered their questions in German.

The fiasco at the Department for Transport was part of a botched efficiency drive which has cost taxpayers millions of pounds more than it was designed to save.

Government spending watchdogs described the saga as a Yes Minister-style farce.

But Whitehall wags suggested that Ja, Minister might be more appropriate.

The efficiency drive designed to save £57million is now likely to lose the department £81million, the National Audit Office's report found.

It revealed how there had been insufficient time to test the IT system, which then proved 'unstable' when it went live.

Edward Leigh MP, the chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the problems 'would have been familiar to Sir Humphrey Appleby', referring to the Whitehall mandarin in Yes, Minister.

Staff were recorded as sick when they were not while mixups led to one employee losing nine days' annual leave.

The report added: 'This lack of completeness was highlighted as several users when seeking online help regarding a query, suddenly found their queries being answered in German rather than English.'

One civil servant told the watchdog: 'When you log on, it tells you in German that your password has expired. I think absolutely everybody got that.'

The aim had been to save money by integrating the main Department for Transport computer with its agencies - such as the Driving Standards Agency, the DVLA and the coastguard - to streamline administrative functions. But it ended up costing more.

The department had forecast that the programme would cost £55million and achieve gross savings of £112million.

But the programme is now forecast to cost over £120million against the gross savings currently identified of £40million over its lifetime to March 2015.

Tory Shadow Leader of the House Theresa May said: 'The NHS computer system catastrophe was bad enough.

'It now has a computer system that sends you messages in German. It beggars belief.'

A Department for Transport spokesman said: 'As with any pioneering project on such a large scale, there will always be lessons to be learnt and we have already made improvements.'