Revenue IT a costly success

"The department should have foreseen that its demand for IT services could vary significantly and determined how this might affect its contractor's prices and profit margins," said Leigh. "These will have to be rigorously benchmarked in future to make sure the prices fairly reflect the actual volume of work being carried out."

Freelance journalist Nicole Kobie first started writing for ITPro in 2007, with bylines in New Scientist, Wired, PC Pro and many more.

Nicole the author of a book about the history of technology, The Long History of the Future.