Bungling Wandsworth council officers have admitted to a £1.1m overspend on a computer project introduced to reduce overspending.

The Frameworki system, which holds records of all adult and children’s social service clients in the borough, was brought in after Wandsworth Council overspent £3.4m in 2005.

It means the council has overspent £4.5m in the social budget in the last four years – but officers have assured councillors this latest overspend has not led, in light of the Baby P case, to any increased danger for those on the social risk register.

Frameworki – which also allows users at the borough’s health authority to access the system – was originally costed at £154,000.

But an investigation ordered by the Adult Care Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee (ACSOSC) showed the council was forced to pay £1.2m to external consultants between 2006 and 2009 after problems with implementation.

The investigation revealed the overspend was about £1.1m. However, the council said although the costs appeared high, they effectively represented the installation of the new, online fully-interactive system.

It said the system covered many thousands of cases and had an expenditure of well above £100m a year with more than 1,000 online users. Tony Belton, leader of the Labour opposition in the council, said the issue highlighted deeper problems. He said: “The council itself says this is the result of various things but it is a woeful case of mismanagement. “I’m glad there have been assurances no social services client has been put at risk because of this, particularly children.”

Chairman of the ACSOSC committee Councillor John Hallmark admitted mistakes were made.

He said: “The technology was more complicated than we anticipated. “As a council we are holding our hands up and saying this has gone wrong. “We are determined to sort this out, we have the best brains on it.”

The investigation pointed to weaknesses in governance, pressures on the council’s IT staff and the failure to recruit any in-house experienced staff for operation and support as reasons for the error.

Among the investigation’s recommendations, which was heard at the executive committee on Monday, was to create a new post of systems development manager.

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