Prison Service: The Prison Service discontinued the use of a new human resource management computer system after a year, at a cost of almost €500,000, according to the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The new system, HRMS (Human Resource Management Systems), was introduced across the Civil Service in 2002.
The group implementing it was the Centre for Management and Organisation Development (CMOD) in the Department of Finance.
It was introduced into four organisations linked to the Department of Justice, as well as the department itself.
These were the Prison Service, the Courts Service, the Land Registry and the Registry of Deeds and the Legal Aid Board.
Implementation of the new system began in the Prison Service in September 2003.
However, by February 2004 a number of prison governors had decided to continue to use the old system because the new one was not suited to the specific needs of the service.
The reasons for this included the fact that the majority of staff in the Prison Service are on unique grades. They work irregular hours of 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and have special arrangements relating to sick leave.
The accounting officer in the Department of Justice said that it proved impossible to modify the system to take account of the specific requirements of the Prison Service.
Difficulties were increased by the fact that the service operates from 18 different locations, and there were problems with the infrastructural conditions in various prisons.
The Department of Finance commented that it was not made aware of the difficulties with the system in the Prison Service for several months and was not asked for assistance in resolving the problems.
Offers by its CMOD unit to visit the Prison Service offices were not taken up. The department stressed that there was no issue with making resources available to respond to calls for assistance and support.