Government IT (first in a series)

The Times is reporting that our brave boys are not being paid because of, yes, IT failures:

Problems are so widespread that members of the Special Boat Service recently complained about the pay delays to Lord Boyce, the former chief of defence staff, when he visited them on the front line in Afghanistan.

Now, it seems to us that you don't want get on the nerves of the Special Boat Service if you're a smelly sysadmin, because they're quite likely to visit you in the middle of the night and garotte you before stealing your Star Trek posters.

The problems with the new payments system for the Navy, which were introduced in March 2006, are apparently to do with the need for senior officers to authorise payments.

"Sir, the enemy are attacking again, they're well within range."

"Don't bother me, Hodgkins, can't you see I'm completing this approval matrix for the lads' pay? Just let me know which ones have died so I can remove them from the cheque run."

Government IT almost writes its own jokes. Which is why we think we might follow it quite carefully.

(Note to Westmonster sysadmins: we know you're not smelly, this was just a cheap shot at the generic sysadmin type so please don't take us down, thank you).

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 9 Dec 2007 12:04 PM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink