The Home Office is to scrap a £118m computer system, condemned as virtually useless by probation officers, after a damning national audit office report found that equipment orders had been placed unlawfully.
A draft of the NAO report heavily criticises Jack Straw's department and the operation of the probation service's information service, a system bought from French company Bull.
The report, published yesterday in Computer Weekly magazine, reveals that costs rose 70% above the original budget, despite the system's failure to perform as well as expected.
The deal made with Bull has
been declared legally suspect, and the NAO warns: "Legal advice received by the Home Office suggests that any new purchase orders raised under the enabling agreement are unlawful.
"As a result, for example, the Home Office is unable under the existing agreement to fund any expansion in the capacity of the current network to accommodate increased electronic traffic."
The indictment is a severe embarrassment for the Home Office after its installation of a computer system into the passport office was criticised when it led to long delays.
The Home Office has also been criticised for failures of its computer system for the immigration service.
The National Probation Service Information Systems
Strategy (NPSISS) and a Common Case Management System (Crams) were intended to revolutionise the tracking of offenders.
The Home Office also spent £16m to avoid disruption from a millennium bug and £10m on maintenance, but now a new system is expected to be ordered.
The NAO records significant defects, including problems in transferring cases between local probation services.
Probation officers complain that the system is difficult to use, is unable to list dangerous offenders separately, is confused by similar first and surnames such as "John" and "Johnson", and mixes up people with the same date of birth.
A number even claim that it slows down on national lottery
days, insisting that it uses the same electronic circuits as the game.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "The investigation vindicates the campaign that probation staff have run for the last six years.
"Crams has been a complete waste of taxpayers' money.
"It is crucial that the Home Office now learns from past mistakes to ensure that the new system is efficient and effective."
An NAO spokesman said yesterday: "This report has yet to be agreed with the Home Office, and we do not comment on draft reports."
The Home Office said it did not want to comment until the report was officially published this year.
