By RICHARD WOOD
Consulting firm Accenture has been hit with penalty payments over delays in the Department for Courts Collect project - which is now seven months late.
The Collect information system will replace the fines part of the justice sector's Law Enforcement System to improve the efficiency of fines collection.
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Department for Courts refuses to disclose the amount of the penalty on Accenture, but has confirmed it is only a proportion of what it could have imposed under the contract. The Collect deal has been reported as being worth $8.59 million.
Accenture is also staying mum, referring questions to the department. The multinational company, formerly Andersen Consulting, has 122 staff in New Zealand.
In a written response to questions from the Herald, Courts spokesman Barry Ebert fudged the issue of responsibility.
"At the beginning of a complex contract like this, neither party can anticipate fully every difficulty to be faced along the way," he said.
"We all make the best estimates we can and bind ourselves to arrangements. Not every delay can properly be seen as a 'fault' in the sense of the question."
Mr Ebert said that when the problem was identified last June, "the department acknowledged the commitment of Accenture to complete the project within the original contract price, despite a significant increase in the effort expected".
"The parties agreed then that the priority was on successful delivery, not unproductive questions of blame."
Mr Ebert said there had been no cost overrun.
The State Services Commission monitors the project, and spokesman Ian Lineham said it had regarded Collect as in the low- to medium-risk category, meaning it was being not intensively monitored.
"What we were aware of in December was that there was possible further slippage in the testing of it," he said.
This refers to the operational readiness testing of the system, which the department says is expected to continue for some weeks yet.
Mr Ebert said the difficulties related to complexities in the integration of the computer system - particularly in the 30-plus interfaces with the Law Enforcement System and 11 other agencies.
The project required the conversion of more than 300 million LES records involving 7 million collections, 19 million enforcements and 41 million transactions.
