The government is passing the buck over a string of embarrassing IT failures in the direction of the private sector. Many of them were implemented under the private finance initiative, which gives the government an exit route away from the flack it has been taking. Among the high profile system failures have been in the Passport Office, immigration, National Insurance, the Benefits Agency and as we reported yesterday, £30 million spent by the MOD on junk projects. The Computer Software and Services Association has said it will conduct a study into the government's large scale IT projects to identify common causes of failure and whether these are common to the public and private sectors. Cabinet Officer in charge of the review Ian McCartney said in the Financial Times: "Suppliers share responsibility for ensuring that projects are delivered on time, on budget and provide the promised services improvements. Both sides suffer when things go wrong." See also: MOD blows £30m on junk projects