Minister of Defense relieves top officials from office due to ICT problems

Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has removed four top civil servants from their positions because they are said to be jointly responsible for the major ICT problems at the Ministry of Defense. Research would show that equipment is very outdated and that internal communication is difficult.

According to a spokesperson, Hennis-Plasschaert has removed the four top civil servants from their positions ‘due to problems in the ministry’s internal communication and ICT’, writes de Volkskrant. However, the four managers would continue to work at Defense in the role of advisor, because the ministry would like to retain their knowledge.

According to the minister, the steps were necessary because an external investigation, which has now been completed, has shown that there are major problems at the Ministry of Defense. This investigation was initiated after the minister sounded the alarm bell in the House of Representatives last month. The Ministry of Defense believes that things can only be put in order with a new leadership.

The research has shown, among other things, that the Defense organization has many outdated systems, which means that the chance of failure is high. In addition, there would be insufficient hardware available as a reserve, so that a possible failure would be difficult to overcome. The minister is now going to calculate what it will cost to get the hardware in order. She promises to provide the House with further information about this before the end of the year.

According to the ministry, the ICT problems are partly the result of new rounds of cutbacks, which mainly affected support departments. Another problem is that there is a lack of a clear vision that should underline the importance of ICT at Defense and that the responsible departments do not communicate well with each other. In addition, the departments would have been misdirected from above.

The IT problems at Defense are not isolated. For example, it turned out last month that the tax authorities threw away more than 200 million euros with a failed ICT project. A commission of inquiry is currently investigating the question of why government ICT projects so often fail and are associated with significant cost overruns.