Government in inefficiency shocker
Plus ça change. Reduction in government size, number of civil servants, elimination of petty empires and scrapping of ineffectual agencies (*cough* Environment Agency *cough*) is the only real way to reduce IT spend. To quote Oscar Wilde "The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy". Civil servants will always find way to spend money to justify their own existence. IT is a wonderful way to do it - endless meetings, committees, consultants, contracts and heaps of paperwork. That'll keep a whole agency busy for years.
I should know. I did a stint in a government IT department. The things I saw, good grief...