When you forget KISS, & @secure exchange
In 1995 I walked into Cabinet Office and turned a powerpoint slide into something that actually worked. I saw the bigger plan, and I changed the details, then took care of building it. It is still working today, but it was successful because tech was shaped in sync with demands being formulated, and it was kept simple but solid (I had a feeling we would not be able to switch it off, so our pilot platform was actually already the real thing - and I was proven right).
Since that day I helped out occasionally where they got themselves into a mess because there are too many people able to baffle them with BS, whereas the key to doing things government wide is keeping things so simple they (a) remain understandable, even to non-technical people (explain to me how you could otherwise trust it) and (b) stand a chance of actually working in a secure way. KISS is a good principle, also in security.
IBM isn't a bad setup but without this direct interface between the people that build and the people that will eventually use the stuff it's very likely any project comes off the rails at some point, and people running around in cloak-and-dagger MIx land aren't naturally very talkative.
As for "Secure exchange between public bodies", I actually rescued a trial system, and that worked after I changed a few things. However, at the time of rescue I also told the club implementing it that their Proof of Concept implementation would never scale, and did some proposals to improve it. I guess they didn't listen - they didn't strike me as people that knew how to handle government level systems anyway.
I think it's time I pick up a phone and see what is going on..