The London Assembly Budget Committee has issued a report
criticising the £31m contract re-negotiated with Capita by
Transport for London to run the London congestion
charge.
The report on the revised contract, made six months into the
congestion charge scheme, was published in advance of the
committee's budget meeting on 16 October.
The report found that the one-off payment to Capita of £3.5m for
IT systems was a cost "which should have been met by Capita, not
TFL".
Capita has also been fined £1m for poor performance in the seven
months the scheme has been in operation.
Tens of thousands of penalty notices were issued in error
following incorrect data entry and poor checks.
The London Assembly Budget Committee was also surprised that the
contract was renegotiated as a result of problems with customer
service at Capita, rather than technical failures.
In a statement responding to the £1m fine, Capita said financial
penalties and additional payments form a routine part of any
contract. It said the penalty represented a tiny percentage of the
potential penalties Capita would incur if it failed to meet its
service level agreement with TFL.
Capita also runs the Criminal Records Bureau IT and the BBC's TV
licensing service. It was heavily criticised after IT systems it
supplied for the government's Individual Learning Accounts scheme
were abused by unscrupulous training firms.