Public bodies blow £133m of taxpayers’ money on IT debacles

THREE public-sector bodies have spent more than £133 million on IT programmes that have either been written off, delayed or ended early.

The problems revealed in a new Audit Scotland report lay bare the ongoing waste of taxpayers’ money in such projects.

It comes just weeks after the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) revealed it had spent £7.7m on an IT “performance platform” that never saw the light of day.

The report raises fresh questions about governance of 
multi-million-pound public-sector contracts.

The biggest culprit in the Audit Scotland report was Registers of Scotland, which had seen a ten-year project, originally estimated to cost £66m, require £112m of public funds.

It was signed in 2004 but now the quango wants to exit the deal early, so faces a further charge estimated to be £5m.

The Crown Office has written off a £2.3m case management programme, after seeing the costs of implementing it rise and its own budget tighten. It says it has been able to use some of the work in other projects.

Meanwhile, Disclosure Scotland has seen a new electronic record of people working with children and vulnerable adults delayed by around 18 months. However, Audit Scotland expects the programme to fall within the original £31m budget, and says people have not been put at risk as a result. The system is expected to be in place by the autumn. So far, £19m has been spent on the project.

The series of failures has led to heavy criticism.

Labour MSP Graeme Pearson said: “It is unacceptable that, at a time of severe cuts, this SNP government stands by idly while millions of pounds of tax payers’ money is thrown away. ”

Scottish Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser said: “These three projects investigated are only the ones we know about, and with £740m spent a year across the country, you have to wonder what proportion of that is being wasted.”

Audit Scotland said the bodies’ lack of specialist skills and experience contributed to a lack of understanding of the challenges they were taking on.

Auditor General for Scotland, Caroline Gardner, said: “The Scottish Government needs to strengthen its strategic oversight of ICT [information and communication technology] investment, to ensure the public sector delivers value for money.”

The three bodies said action had been taken following the report.

“We have terminated that 
arrangement two years early to enable a new approach of using in-house ICT experts,” a Registers of Scotland spokesman said.

Disclosure Scotland said staff had worked overtime to make sure people were protected, with costs recouped from the contractor, BT.

Catherine Dyer, of the Crown Office, added: “Lessons have already been learned and we have established a project management office that strengthens our in-house expertise.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We will look closely at Audit Scotland’s recommendations to ensure future contracts and programmes are as effective as possible.”