Implementing the solution

3.47  Given the extent to which difficulties were not resolved during the procurement period, the risks to the project when the contract was awarded to Pathway were likely to have a major effect on the cost and timescale of the project, however strong were the arrangements for managing implementation. The purchasers attempted to manage the major risks that re-emerged during the system development and implementation stage mainly through:

■  formal risk management procedures operated by a joint delivery authority, replaced in April 1998 by a Post Office Counters Ltd team;

■  agreeing a project replan with Pathway in February 1997;

■  commissioning an independent review of the entire programme from PA Consulting when slippage continued, and acting on the recommendations; and

■  the risk management arrangements of Post Office Counters Ltd from April 1998, when their Horizon team took over responsibility for the contract with Pathway.