According to MPs, £98 million in taxpayer money was lost due to errors that should have been avoided in the upgrade of the electronic tagging of offenders.
Because of the failure of the new IT system, tagging strategies currently depend on expensive, old software.
The Commons public accounts committee described the loss of at least £98 million on the Gemini project as “very alarming” and expressed worry about the Ministry of Justice’s projected further expenditure of £1.2 billion on tagging.
Such mistakes, according to committee head Dame Meg Hillier, endanger the public.
Dame Meg said, “That’s another £100 million of taxpayer money simply squandered, lost, and wasted for important public services.”
“The present system is at continual danger of failure,” the report states, “and efforts to alter it have failed. Let us be clear that in the case of tagging, “failure” may entail direct and avoidable damage to the public.”
We demand a genuine justification and a serious strategy from the MoJ and the government at large about how they intend to stem the hemorrhaging of tax dollars that they are in charge of.
We want up-front guarantees on the additional £1.2 billion they have already committed to the tagging scheme, specifically regarding what will be accomplished, by when, and, most importantly, what will be recovered for the public if objectives are not attained.
Gemini was designed to simplify the tagging procedure and to make a variety of information on offenders readily available to probation and police authorities.
After what the NAO referred to as “repeated problems,” it was canceled at the end of last year, 18 months late.
According to the NAO, authorities are now unable to thoroughly monitor whether criminals who are required to wear a tag as part of their penalty go on to commit more crimes.
In the report released today, MPs said the errors “cost taxpayers dearly.”
A “high-risk and too convoluted delivery strategy, insufficient control of vendors, an overly ambitious deadline, and light-touch Ministry of Justice inspection” were among the mistakes.
The committee said that it was “unconvinced” that the MoJ is prepared to deal with new issues.
The MPs agreed to keep an eye on the “severe hazards” associated with the proposed expansion of tagging programs.
They specifically said that the committee will closely monitor the Government’s negotiations of new contracts with suppliers in the private sector, which are scheduled to begin in early 2024.
It happened at the same time that fresh MoJ statistics revealed that in England and Wales, the number of persons with electronic tags had reached a record 15,000, a 12% increase year over year.
By the end of September, there were 5,243 satellite tags, which employ GPS technology to monitor the wearer’s whereabouts.
Additionally, the number of alcohol monitoring tags increased by 153%, reaching little over 1,500. If the wearer consumes alcohol while violating bail terms, they set off a remote alert.
‘Innovative GPS and sobriety tags are enabling us to clamp down on crime, from alcohol-fueled violence to burglary,’ a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said.
“To better safeguard the public, we are investing in tripling the number of criminals tagged by 2025,” the statement reads. “Our decision to suspend development on specific tagging systems saved taxpayers over £30 million.”