![\"Phoenix](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.4287823.1505324707!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.png_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/phoenix-pay-system-protest-st-john-s.png\")
<\/p>\nAnother government IT project is going off the rails, this one intended to issue Canadian passports faster and cheaper than the current system.<\/p>\n
The so-called Passport Program Modernization Initiative, launched in 2014, is at least $75 million over budget and well behind schedule.<\/p>\n
“From its outset, the complexity \u2026 was underestimated,” says an internal document, explaining a series of setbacks to the ambitious plan.<\/p>\n
“The project management capacity and expertise was insufficient for the complexity and scale of the initiative.”<\/p>\n
The January 2017\u00a0document,\u00a0obtained by CBC News under the Access to Information Act, says that in initial tests the new system actually increased processing times, rather than decreased them as planned, and\u00a0allowed breaches to Canadians’ confidential information.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The flubbed passport modernization project joins several other federal IT disasters, including the Phoenix payroll system that has disrupted the paycheques of thousands of public servants. (Jeremy Eaton\/CBC )<\/p>\n
The passport mess joins the botched Phoenix payroll system, the struggling email transformation initiative and the Canada.ca project as IT schemes inherited by the Liberal government that have bogged down in delays and cost over-runs.<\/p>\n
But unlike the other three, the fees Canadians pay directly for their passports are going to bail out the modernization project rather than general tax revenues.<\/p>\n
That’s because passport fees are much higher than the actual cost of producing the document, and surpluses can be used for improvements in passport processing, including the modernization project and its budget overruns.<\/p>\n
The passport project was first approved in December 2013 with a five-year, $101.2-million budget, and was intended among other things to let Canadians apply online for renewals. The project was to be complete by June next year.<\/p>\n
But Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada\u00a0\u2014\u00a0which has run the passport office since July 2013\u00a0\u2014\u00a0now says modernization will cost at least $176 million, a 75 per cent increase so far, and will not meet next year’s deadline because of delays.<\/p>\n
“The project schedule is under review and planned activities are being resequenced to occur at a later date,” says a report on the project.<\/p>\n
CBC News has previously reported on the first flubbed test of the new system, starting on May 9, 2015, in which at least 1,500 passports were produced that were vulnerable to fraud and tampering.<\/p>\n
![\"Canada.ca](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/1.3892809.1481569257!\/fileImage\/httpImage\/image.jpg_gen\/derivatives\/original_620\/canada-ca-brison.jpg\")
<\/p>\n