It's perfectly simple. All they have to do is put it out to tender with the proviso that any proposed solution be critically examined for cryptographic flaws and flaws which would allow the system to be hacked. The project tender should be in two stages. The first would be given to a number of contractors, each to perform a feasibility study and proposal, the second would be awarded to the best proposal.
They can be seen to be doing something which will keep them happy. As the rest of us know the tender will be on a hiding to nothing the rest of us can be happy. The latter includes the contractors because they know they can be paid for doing a lot of work on the feasibility study and still get paid for saying it can't be done. One bright spark, of course, will probably come up with an idea which will eventually fail on critical assessment but they'll still be paid.
This is not, unlike many government IT projects, a waste of public money. It will be an excellent investment on keeping the idiots off everyone's backs, possibly for years with the additional advantage that as it will fail in their own terms they can still eventually be vilified for wasting public money.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
