Is the government not willing to change the way they operate on technology? Why does everything the government do get contracted out? Is there a possibility of the tech for all government systems be supplied in house and operated as such?

Who is in charge of technology contracts and why are they still around?

When does this sort of bullshit stop? MILLIONS are being wasted on something that hasn't lasted a few weeks

ARE THEY SERIOUSLY EXPECTING THESE SYSTEMS TO LAST YEARS?

Be careful what you wish for. Internally developed systems in the government tend to suck as badly and cost as much or more than solutions that are contracted out. Software development, except in relatively small isolated cases, will never be well executed inside government. The nature of bureaucracy pretty much guarantees it. The best hope is relying on open source or off the shelf software as much as possible.

Grand scheme healthcare system software contracted by government is often plagued with issues, compounded by naive government officials not drawing up strong enough contracts to hold their sharkish IT "partners" to account. With the UK as an example, here's a summary from the Reg: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/27/uk_public_sector_out... "It says that clearly some of the problems encountered by ICT projects are a result of over-ambition, a lack of design and development before procurement, and pressures for efficiency savings overtaking the ability to deliver. The technical complexity of ICT projects is also often underestimated". There's also a report linked at the bottom with more details.