The UK arm of Siemens AG has hit back at claims in the press that its systems were responsible for the backlog of 566,000 applications facing the British Passport Agency that has so far resulted in over 100 people being promised compensation for missed travel. Tuesday evening, the junior Home Office minister in charge of the agency told a TV news program that Siemens would not be paid until the system it installed to run the passport application process was working perfectly. Home secretary Jack Straw told the House of Commons the computer systems and an unexplained surge in applications were to blame for the situation.
Siemens is not talking to press about the debacle, but said in a statement: This is a highly complex project… The IT systems have been designed, developed and delivered on time against the agreed schedule. The firm pointed out that over one million applications have been processed by the new system, which went into pilot last October. Siemens instead blamed Home Office forecasts which fell short of actual demand for the backlog. Pundits are predicting that the chaos that has seen enormous lines form outside passport offices over the country will continue throughout the summer.
