14 November 2003
MPs have slammed the national IT programme for magistrates' courts as one of the worst examples of a Private Finance Initiative project they have ever seen, describing the procurement as 'disastrous at every turn'.
In 1998, the Lord Chancellor's Department signed a £184m
10.5-year deal with IT contractor ICL (now Fujitsu Services), to provide services to 42 magistrates' courts committees. However, the company soon ran into financial difficulty and the contract had to be renegotiated twice, with the company asking for more money each time.
In a report published on November 11, the Commons Public Accounts Committee criticised the LCD for hosting a poor competition, which attracted only one bidder, and for failing to take decisive action when ICL did not deliver what was required.
ICL was also found to have failed to understand the LCD's requirements, taken on an excessive risk and underpriced its bid. The failures caused the costs of the project to more than double to almost £400m in four years, while magistrates' courts are still without the computer systems they need to function effectively.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said: 'The Libra deal is one of the worst PFI projects my committee has seen. It has failed to deliver the common IT solution for magistrates' courts that is so desperately needed and turned out to be an astonishingly poor deal for the taxpayer.
'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.'
The committee added that contract termination was not always the most difficult or risky option.
It recommended that departments redesign business processes in parallel with new IT systems and ensure competition for contracts is robust.
'Work to be done' on Scots pay offer, says FDA
Senior civil servants in Scotland's Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service stoked the fires of their smouldering dispute with employers this week by overwhelmingly rejecting a
two-year pay deal.
FDA members in the Scottish Executive department, which provides the country's public prosecutions and deaths investigation services, voted 92% to 8% to reject a 10% pay offer for 2003/05 in a ballot announced on November 10.
The top civil servants union, which represents lawyers and senior managers in the department, said over 80% of its members who were eligible to vote took part. Members claim that the Crown Office's offer falls significantly short of closing what they see as the widening pay gap between themselves and lawyers and specialists elsewhere in the public and private spheres.
Crown Office management – who claimed that the offer was 'fair' – reluctantly called a meeting to discuss the rejection, but were immediately warned by the union to 'avoid conflict' over the issue.
The FDA could yet ballot on strike action that would bring the country's courts system to a temporary halt.
Dave Penman, the FDA's head of operations, said this week's ballot sent 'the clearest possible signal to the Crown Office that they have failed to address the issues that are important to their legal and senior manager grades'. He added: 'We want to see these issues settled quickly and amicably, but the size of the rejection should indicate there is some considerable work to be done.'
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents the majority of the Crown Office's employees, have voted to accept a 10% deal.
Livestock tracking marred by late data
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' control system for tracking 25 million cattle, sheep and pigs in England has helped protect the public from BSE, the 'mad cow disease', the National Audit Office has concluded.
But the NAO report, Identifying and tracking livestock in England, published on November 12, says that inaccurate information and reliance on notification by post and e-mail is costing the government at least £15m a year.
A fifth of cattle movements fail to meet the three-day deadline for notification, it says, and around 5% are reported more than five weeks late. 'Information on the movement of animals around the country is of vital importance in the fight to prevent the spread of animal disease,' notes auditor general Sir John Bourn. 'It is also vital to consumers' confidence in the food that they eat.'
The NAO recommends providing and promoting easy-to-use electronic methods of reporting, setting targets for cleaning up data, and working with the industry to reduce errors in information sent in by farmers.
Defra is planning to change its systems in a £136m livestock identification and tracing programme.
PFnov2003
