The government finance watchdog has slated the Public Guardianship Office (PGO) for wasting almost £3.8 million on a new case management system that was ditched owing to delays and lack of quality.

The National Audit Office spoke out after the PGO, which looks after the interests of people who suffer from mental incapacity by implementing decisions made by the Court of Protection, spent £5.3 million for a new IT system in 2001.


LogicaCMG was contracted to deliver the new system in three phases related to the PGO's finance and accounting system as well as its main areas of work, registering enduring powers of attorney and overseeing the work of receivers. The PGO wanted to enable staff in different parts of the organisation to work on cases simultaneously via the new system.


However, the bulk of the money, allocated to the receiverships case management project, had to be written off by the Department for Constitutional Affairs because it felt Logica would not be able to deliver the whole project within the strict timetable the DCA had allowed, the audit office found. The audit office also noted the high demand on the PGO's services and that proposed legislative changes had contributed to the problems.


It added that the PGO should learn lessons from other public sector bodies - including its counterpart in Scotland, which spent just £200,000 on updating its Court Service IT system.


A PGO spokeswoman said it was committed to a case management system that would meet its future as well as current needs.


A spokesman for LogicaCMG also pointed out that two of the project's three phases were delivered on time.