By Natasha Lomas, 17 July 2009 16:28
NEWS
The government has written off millions of pounds on the second part of a collaborative working system.
The £24.4m write-off on the Scope programme - a secure electronic comms network aimed at improving information sharing across 10 government departments and security and intelligence agencies - was approved by the Treasury after phase two of the rollout was terminated in July last year.
The first phase of the project was delivered on time and on budget back in 2007, according to the Cabinet Office's annual report and accounts published yesterday.
However, the second phase - which was to provide additional functionality to allow for greater collaborative working between agencies and departments - was shuttered following the failure of the main commercial supplier to meet "key contractual milestones", the report said.
A spokesman for the Cabinet Office declined to provide details of the missed milestones or name the supplier in question because of "confidentially on security and commercial grounds".
Tessa Jowell, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, told parliament yesterday that the government is attempting to recover costs from its supplier.
"My department is now working with the contractor to resolve issues arising from the termination of the programme, including consideration of the legal avenues available," she said.
"The aim of the work is to ensure that Her Majesty's government and, ultimately, the taxpayer recover the appropriate value from the supplier which relates to those undelivered parts of the programme."
Asked whether there will be a replacement system for phase two, the Cabinet Office spokesman said work is underway on providing core parts of it, but added that there are currently no plans to go back out to tender.
"The collapse of [phase two] doesn't mean the collapse of the Scope project full-stop," the spokesman added. "The vast majority of it has been hugely successful."
Comments
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1. Richard Davies
At a time when people are struggling to pay bills etc. this is a disgrace, but nothing too surprising when you look at their track record.
Trying to get money back is no good...they should have written the contract better in the first place to ensure that if milestones weren't reached then penalties etc. would be applied E.g. not paying the supplier etc.
2. anonymous
Whatever happened to Government IT Gateway reviews - RED means stop remember.
As ever with Governmnt IT - Beggaring belief they still can't get it right, and flush so much of our taxpyers money down the toilet.
3. karen challinor
Anonymous of Birmingham - "red means stop"
only with traffic lights
on government projects a red light apparently means make a brief note of the problem and then full steam ahead trusting that someone else will have dealt with the problem by the time you finish, while at no time actually addressing the problem themselves or detailing any resources, funding or external personnel to deal with the problem
bit like throwing yourself off a cliff trusting that someone will give you a parachute before you hit the bottom