And Yet Another Government IT Project Goes Down In Flames...

A government IT project for tracking offenders in England and Wales through the criminal justice system was a "shambles", MPs have said.

Officials in charge of the scheme - abandoned after costs trebled - lacked even a "minimum level of competence", the Public Accounts Committee found.

It wasn't because it was a rush job, either. It began life in 2004:

...by July 2007 the project was two years behind schedule and its estimated costs had increased to £690m. It was later abandoned.

The committee's report finds that staff "grossly underestimated" the likely cost and neither ministers nor senior management at the Home Office, nor even the project board, were aware of problems until May 2007.

Nice...

Even now, the National Offender Management Service, which runs prisons and probation, has no idea what £161m spent before October 2007 was used for, it adds.

The Simple Shopper, folks...