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Report published by Commons committee warns getting the system working properly is likely to cost an additional £85m An attempted reorganisation of the fire service by the last government cost nearly £500m and was one of the worst cases of project failure MPs have ever seen, according to a highly critical report published on Tuesday by the all-party Commons public accounts committee (PAC). It warns that finally getting the system working properly is likely to cost an additional £85m. The damning report – published following an investigation and hearings by the committee this summer – says that the concept of abolishing 46 local fire and rescue control rooms and reorganising them into nine regional control centres was flawed from the start. The FiReControl project was launched too quickly with insufficient consultation, it is claimed. The committee also says a contract for designing, developing and installing an IT infrastructure was awarded three years late, to European Air and Defence Systems, now Cassidian, a company with no experience of dealing with emergency services. The project’s development was heavily reliant on advice from PA Consulting, whose services alone cost £42m. The scheme was terminated last December with no objectives achieved and at least £469m wasted, the MPs say. Margaret Hodge, the Labour chair of the PAC, said the scheme had been a complete failure. “The taxpayer has lost nearly half a billion pounds and eight of the completed regional control centres remain as empty and costly white elephants. “No one has been held to account for this project failure, one of the worst we have seen for many years, and the careers of most of the senior staff responsible have carried on as if nothing had gone wrong at all, and the consultants and contractor continue to work on many other government projects.” The project, launched in 2004, was intended to produce a more co-ordinated response to emergencies such as train crashes and terrorist attacks, but the intention of abolishing local control rooms and replacing them with regional centres was undermined from the start because the Department for Communities and Local Government lacked powers impose such a framework and failed to consult local fire services, despite the costs and potential liabilities they would face from reorganisation. The report says the department pushed ahead without undertaking basic project approval checks, taking decisions before testing the ideas for feasibility. It adds: “The result was hugely unrealistic forecast costs and savings, naive over-optimism on the deliverability of the IT solution and under-appreciation or mitigation of the risks. “The department demonstrated poor judgment in approving the project and failed to provide appropriate checks and challenge. “The new fire control centres were constructed and completed whilst there was considerable delay in even awarding the IT contract, let alone developing the essential IT infrastructure. Consultants made up over half the management team (costing £69m by 2010) but were not managed … The committee considers this an extraordinary failure of leadership. Yet no individuals have been held accountable for the failure and waste.” The MPs say the department now estimates it will cost a further £84.8m to put the project right and is inviting bids from fire and rescue services, but remains unable to say whether that will provide value for money, or provide a more efficient and co-ordinated service in the event of a major emergency. It says the eight empty regional control centres are costing the taxpayer £4m a month to maintain and it is likely that only five of them will ultimately be used. Firefighters Tax and spending House of Commons Stephen Bates guardian.co.uk