POLICE SCOTLAND IT PROJECT
A FIRM at the centre of one of the world’s biggest public sector computing disasters has been handed a Scottish police IT contract.
Accenture will be in charge of developing a crime-fighting computer system – currently costing £60 million – for Police Scotland.
The project was already under fire as the projected bill has risen about £15 million in recent weeks.
Accenture was involved in the disaster-prone development of a £12.7 billion computer system for the NHS in England and Wales.
In 2006, it pulled out of the contract – then one of the world’s biggest IT projects – at a time when it was running about two years behind schedule. The entire project was eventually abandoned in 2011.
The IT and technology giant, with its Headquarters in the Republic of Ireland but with offices around the world, has also faced questions over alleged moves to minimise payment of UK corporation tax, although there is no suggestion of wrong-doing.
Graeme Pearson, a Scottish Labour justice spokesman, said that changing the entire IT system for Police Scotland is going to be massive, and says it’s right that the very best advice is available. But Mr Pearson also pointed out that before this contract had even been announced, costs have continued to spiral. He says that the contract has been awarded to a company with a chequered track record of delivering major change programmes in our public sector.
Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority (SPA), the civilian body which oversees it, selected Accenture to develop and maintain the new IT system – called i6 – for the single force, which is still using the eight systems inherited from the old regional forces.
The contract will run over ten years but with a possible two-year extension. It is worth £39 million out of the projected £60 million total budget.
Police Scotland says it can now start its journey with Accenture that will allow it to have (national) policing processes that are supported by a modern IT solution.
Accenture’s industrial experience in providing support to global policing, along with the company’s strong local expertise in Scotland, is believed to have been central to its selection by Police Scotland.
Accenture generated global net revenues of £21 billion in 2011-12. But in May the firm faced claims it was one of a group of internet and technology companies allegedly minimising UK corporation tax payments by sending some revenues to Ireland.
A spokesman for the firm, said:
… Accenture pays UK tax on all of its UK business. It reports revenue under those contracts and files accounts in the UK annually.
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