Summary
‘The National Offender Management Information System (HC 510)’, examines the C-NOMIS project which is intended to deliver a single offender management IT system across prison and probation services, initially envisaged by the Home Office for delivery in January 2008 for £234 million. It was stopped in August 2007 because costs had trebled.
The NOMIS programme was revised and scaled back to three offender databases for £513 million with delivery by 2011. The original concept was ambitious but still technically feasible.
This Report from the Public Account Committee reports that problems encountered at entry level led to an out of control programme which eventually could no longer be afforded by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), who significantly underestimated the technical complexity of the projects and the need to standardise ways of working to avoid excessive customisation. There was also poor planning, poor financial monitoring, inadequate supplier management and too little control over changes.
The Committee finds that cost and progress were not monitored or reported for the first three years after the inceptions of C-NOMIS, in part because the first Senior Responsible Owner overseeing the project did not have relevant project experience or training. The Project Board, the NOMS Board, the Home Office senior management and Ministers were all unaware of the true cost and progress before May 2007.
In summary, the Report finds that NOMS cannot say in detail what £161 million to October 2007 was spent on and suggests that C-NOMIS is a singular example of comprehensively poor project management.
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