25. At our hearing on 24 June 2002 on the collection of fines in the Criminal Justice System we asked whether it was true that the Department was not proceeding with that part of the Libra contract which would provide the software for court business. The Accounting Officer replied as follows, "No, that is not my understanding. My understanding is that we are in negotiation with the company ICL, now called Fujitsu Services, about the timescale of the cost of the software package because of the delay and we intend to bring that to a conclusion just as soon as we can so we know where we are."28 The Accounting Officer told us, however, at our hearing on 10 February 2003, that the Department had decided in February 2002 that ICL should not continue with the development of the core software application. ICL told us that it had learnt in March 2002 that it was no longer required to provide the core software application.29
26. The Accounting Officer said that at the earlier hearing he had sought to protect the commercial negotiation that was still in train. At the time of the hearing the deal had not been finalised. Discussions were continuing on a number of sensitive matters and until he was sure that the Department had a signed, settled agreement he was anxious not to jeopardise those discussions. He thought it would be unwise from both a commercial and legal aspect to divulge details of the proposed agreement until the contract was signed. The Accounting Officer accepted that he could have handled the situation differently by, for example, presenting the information to the Committee in confidence. He regretted giving incorrect information and stressed that he had not deliberately sought to mislead the Committee.30
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28 68th Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Collection of fines and other financial penalties in the Criminal Justice System (HC 999, Session 2001-02); Q 54
29 Qq 151, 158
30 Qq 161-171