THE cost of a new government IT system for a farmer subsidy programme has doubled, MSPs have heard.
Members of Holyrood's Public Audit Committee were told that spending on the IT company delivering the project has risen from an estimated £28.8 million to £60.4m and that there was a "significant risk" to the programme's delivery.
MSPs and a taxpayer group have raised concerns about the computer system farmers and crofters must now use to apply for European Union (EU) subsidy payments.
The Scottish Government attributed the increased costs of the programme to the need to deliver the IT solution in "compressed timescales" and to changes to EC requirements.
But the government was criticised by Taxpayer Scotland. A spokesman said: "Another day, another bungled government IT project. This happens all too often and it's taxpayers that get lumbered with the bill.
"We have to look seriously at the implementation of the project and, for once, learn the lessons of this costly IT fiasco so that taxpayers don't have to hear this familiar tune once again."
The IT system is part of the Scottish Government's Futures programme, a five-year project to oversee the implementation of the new EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Scotland.
The programme aims to ensure the safe delivery of nearly £4 billion of support to the farming, food and rural affairs sectors.
MSPs were told the estimated cost of the Futures programme had risen from £102.5m to £178m.
In a letter updating the committee on the project, Caroline Gardner, the auditor general for Scotland, said she had drawn the Parliament's attention to the ongoing risks to achieving successful delivery of the programme and to overall value for money.
"The programme will continue to carry significant risk up to full implementation and beyond," she said.
She said timescales were driven by European regulatory requirements including a deadline to make payments under the scheme to farmers by June, 2016.
But in Scotland payments are normally made in the preceding December and this is the timetable the Scottish Government is working to.
Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott said: "By any standards, those are vast increases and we have been here before on some IT projects.
"I would hope that we would be wanting to ask a lot of questions of the accountable officer for this project and to the EU and to stakeholders."
The committee agreed to take further evidence from the Scottish Government and a representative of the EU on the issue.
Graeme Dickson, the enterprise, environment and innovation director general has previously said that sound IT systems are required as a qualification for EU funding. The systems themselves, and not just the payments, need to meet the EU auditors' "tough requirements", he said.
He said when the initial business case was agreed in 2012, they did not know the details of the new schemes not did they foresee the complexity of the system it would need to build.
"The EU promised us a more simple CAP, whereas we will in fact have the most complex CAP ever," he said in a statement to the committee in November.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The new system is radically different to the existing policy and offers significant benefits to farmers ensuring they get paid what they are due."
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