Government and shareholders round on CSC
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IT services provider's poor progress with the Lorenzo project causes the NHS to demand £170 million repayment and an insitutional investor to sue
CSC's slow progress with the Lorenzo mental health care records system has forced it to repay £170 million to the NHS and caused one of its institutional shareholders to sue for damages.
The NHS paid CSC a £200 million advance on the Lorenzo project in April of this year on the condition that its progress by September 30th would be satisfactory. The Department of Health and the Cabinet Office have decided that this has not been the case, and that CSC must repay most of the advance.
Meanwhile, institutional investor the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board has sued CSC, alleging that the company "fraudulently concealed" the poor progress of the Lorenzo contract.
"Under the NHS contract, CSC promised to complete implementation of an IT system at 166 trusts in the NHS system…by 2016," the board's suite against CSC asserts. "To date, CSC has failed to implement a fully functional version of Lorenzo at any of the 166 trusts."
According to CSC, one NHS Trust has adopted the system. The Humber NHS Foundation Trust has "confirmed as the early adopter for mental health functionality to replace Pennine Care Mental Health Trust, which withdrew as an early adopter in April 2011," the company says.
"Progress is continuing in development and deployment projects under the contract in cooperation with the NHS," CSC says, "although progress has been constrained due to the uncertainty created by the government approval process."
