The new Garda computer system, which was initially supposed to cost £23.6 million and was revised upwards to £36 million and again to £55.6 million, is still overrunning its budget despite being scaled down in size, the Comptroller and Auditor General's report has found.
The scaling back of the project may mean that it is no longer what was sanctioned by the Government, the Comptroller suggests.
The report criticises the escalation of the costs despite the fact that it was significantly reduced in size to stay inside its budget.
It is also critical of the fact that Garda personnel costs were excluded from the declared costs.
The PULSE (Police Using Leading Systems Effectively) computer system was to have been located in 242 stations and this was reduced to 161, the report states.
When the contractor, Andersen Consulting, was appointed in January 1996 the cost of the project was put at £23.6 million.
In October 1996 when the project was officially launched, the total cost was put at £36 million. This was subsequently, though with little publicity, revised upwards to £55.6 million.
So far, the Comptroller General reports, only the first phase of PULSE has been introduced at a cost of £46 million. This does not include Garda staff. Initially 60 per cent of the staff required to introduce the system were supposed to be gardai, but sufficient personnel could not be found. At the end of December 1996 the consultants retained to introduce the system exercised their right under the contract with the Department of Justice to meet the staff shortfall of 300 days at a cost of £1,000 per day.
The report finds that in 1997 the consultants indicated that an additional 9,980 days would be required to implement the system. The daily cost of this additional work is not given but the report says the consultants offered a "more competitive rate" than the previous £1,000 per day.
The Comptroller commented that Andersen Consulting's initial estimates for the project were over-optimistic.
He states: "The scaling down of the project by reducing the number of functions being provided, the volume of hardware being installed and the number of locations in which the system would be installed from 242 to 181, remain within the Government-approved budget, raises questions as to whether what is being delivered is what Government had approved and whether the original objectives were realistic.
"In this regard the Accounting Officer states it may have been that the consultants engaged to assist the gardai in formulating their IT plan were overoptimistic in their costing." The Accounting Officer for the PULSE project is the Secretary of the Department of Justice.
The report continues that the Accounting Officer "pointed out that the PULSE project was put out to competitive tender, and there was no choice but to accept the lowest tender received, which involved cutting back on the scope to remain within the Government-approved budget.
"The estimated final cost of Phase 1, which is expected to be fully implemented by the third quarter of 2001, is now put at approximately £46 million. This does not include the cost of garda involvement in the project as records of this involvement were not maintained."
The report concludes: "While acknowledging the complex nature of the overall project and that projects of this sort cannot be fully designed at the planning stage, nevertheless, given the extent of the same consultant's involvement from the outset, it is a matter of concern that the main contract required such significant change in scope over its lifetime."