Largest local government body in Europe goes under amid software disaster
published on 2023/09/06
Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, has declared itself in financial distress after troubled Oracle project costs ballooned from £20 million to around £100 million ($125.5 million).
Contributing to the publication of a legal Section 114 Notice, which says the £3.4 billion ($4.3 billion) revenue organization is unable to balance the books, is a bill of up to £760 million ($954 million) to settle equal pay claims.
In a statement today, councillors John Cotton and Sharon Thompson, leader and deputy leader respectively, said the authority was also hit by financial stress owing to issues with the implementation of its Oracle IT system
Oh dear. A new software project is risky. There are many ways to reduce the risk but here you see an example of a runaway project.