MPs have condemned a major IT project for tracking offenders
through the criminal justice system as a £513m shambles.
Officials in charge of the C-Nomis IT system lacked a minimum
level of competence, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said
yesterday.
Poor management, a
culture of over-optimism and failure to subject the project to
rigorous challenge were among the top reasons it
spiralled out of control before being abandoned two years ago,
the committee said in its report.
"This committee has become inured to the dismal procession of
government IT failures which have passed before us, but even we
are surprised by the extent of the failure of C-Nomis," said Edward
Leigh, chairman of the PAC.
The result has been a three-year delay in delivering the
tracking capability, with the replacement Nomis project expected to
be operational in 2011, he said.
According to the Prison Service, steps have been taken to ensure
the mistakes made with C-Nomis are not repeated.