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By Andy McCue, 11 November 2003 18:15

NEWS The £400m government project for a single magistrates courts case management system has been slammed as "disastrous" and among the worst seen by MPs.

The 10-year deal for the Libra system across 300 magistrates courts was initially signed with sole bidder ICL, now Fujitsu Services, back in 1998 for £184m under the private finance initiative (PFI) framework.

After persistent delays and spiralling costs the contract was eventually renegotiated, with Fujitsu Services providing just the IT infrastructure and two new suppliers delivering the software. Accenture won a £38m deal last month to deliver and run the software from STL Technologies, bringing the total cost of Libra to almost £400m.

The Public Accounts Committee said the project is the worst it has seen and that the Lord ChancellorÂ’s Department had failed to take "decisive action" when it started to get out of control.

ICL was criticised in the report for threatening to pull out of the contract in 1999 and in 2001 unless it received more money. The Lord ChancellorÂ’s department said in the report that it decided not to terminate the contract because of the legal costs involved. Instead it ended up paying ICL more money and transferring more risk for the project back to the government, the report said.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: "The handling of this project by the Lord Chancellor's Department was disastrous at every turn. Departments must be willing to terminate PFI contracts or take legal action when contractors fail to deliver."