MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have slammed the Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) for "alarmingly weak management" and a "shocking absence of control" in its handling of the Universal Credit welfare programme.
The project, which has cost £425m so far, has had extensive delays that the committee blamed on a lack of financial and other internal controls, while adding that it was not yet convinced that the DWP has robust plans to overcome the issues that have so far impeded the project's progress.
Further reading Universal Credit civil servant slammed for lacking a plan - £140m write-off expected DWP: the benefit claims site 'does not work properly' with Mac, Unix or IE 7 and above Government CIO Andy Nelson appointed as IT chief at DWP
Much of the expenditure is unlikely to have any future worth, and at least £140m would be written off, the DWP has confirmed. MPs said that the precise extent is still unknown because the department's impairment review has not been completed.
In the PAC's latest report, it revealed that purchase orders of £22.6m and £1.1m were approved by a personal assistant to a programme director, whose delegated financial authority at the time of approvals was only £10m. It said that when the DWP made individual payments to suppliers, they could not be matched with particular pieces of work that had been delivered. This meant that some of the IT assets that had been delivered could not be used in the programme and will therefore be written-off.
An earlier report from the National Audit Office (NAO) indicated that some £34m had already been written off in IT software and hardware that had been developed or acquired for the programme, but which would never be used.
Accenture, IBM, HP and BT are the lead IT suppliers of the project.
In the PAC's recommendations to get the programme back on track, the committee said that the DWP needs a "robust plan on how to transform its business and what is required from the new IT systems it intends to use to support the transformation".
It suggested that the new IT capabilities must enable more online operations, address risks with fraud, and result in a system that is capable of handling the "real-world complexities of claimants' circumstances".
Transparency is of utmost importance, it said, urging the department to be both realistic and open about costs and timescales.
"Universal Credit is the DWP's single biggest programme and enjoys cross-party support, yet its implementation has been extraordinarily poor," Margaret Hodge, the chair of the PAC said.
"The management of the programme has been alarmingly weak. From the outset, the department has failed to grasp the nature and enormity of the task; failed to monitor and challenge progress regularly; and, when problems arose, failed to intervene promptly. Lack of day-to-day control meant early warning signs were missed, with senior managers becoming aware of problems only through ad hoc reviews.
"We believe strongly that meeting any specific timetable from now on is less important than delivering the programme successfully," she added.
