Despite promising massive savings to Somerset County Council, it appears as if Southwest One, a venture between Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council, Avon and Somerset Police, and computer giant IBM - who owns 75% of it - appears to be a bit of a shambles.
Estimated savings of £45million have so far failed to materialise to any substantial extent, with a review report saying so far only £2million savings to procurement had been delivered.
Not only this, the system managed to make duplicate payments totalling £4.6million, of which £169,000 is still un-recovered and will likely require costly legal action.
"....there appears to have been substantial but unqualified additional direct and indirect costs by the County Council and others in resolving the various difficulties encountered" says the review report, which appears to be putting things very politely.
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