POLICE Scotland is locked in an eight-month dispute with a multi-national IT firm over a £39 million contract to integrate computer systems.
It is withholding £7.3m of an £8m down payment after Accenture failed to meet four out of five pre-set milestones.
Senior officers declined to answer questions at the Scottish Parliament's Justice Sub-committee yesterday.
It led to accusations Holyrood was being "dictated to" and deflected with "management speak".
Deputy Chief Constable Neil Richardson insisted his staff were not being evasive, but were constrained by sensitive negotiations and a need to defer to the i6 project governing board and Scottish Police Authority (SPA) before they can go public.
SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said: "You haven't changed the goalposts in any way, so the contractor has failed to meet the obligations of that contract. Is that right?"
Chief Superintendent Alec Hippman, i6 programme manager, said: "I am unable to answer that in public just now in relation to an assertion where they have failed to fulfil their obligation. That is a matter that is going through our due legal process just now."
He said a divergence of view emerged in the first month of the contract in July, forcing Police Scotland to initiate "dispute resolution mechanisms".
Mr Richardson said: "Entering into a public debate about levels of fault is going to do nothing other than potentially compromise the delivery of this, as the supplier will almost undoubtedly seek to defend their position."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article