Cap Gemini report on ILAs delayed
A report examining how millions of pounds of taxpayer's money went missing from a government training scheme has been delayed, and is not expected until after Easter.
The report into security breaches of Individual Learning Accounts by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, was due to be published in early March.
The Cap Gemini report is supposed to identify how the government permitted the establishment of the ILA system – developed by Capita – with such weak security.
No replacement for the ILA scheme can be set up until the report is published. The ILA scheme was closed down in November last year following allegations of widespread fraud.
But a Department of Education and Skills spokesman admitted the report is now unlikely to be made public until after Easter. ‘With Parliament due to break for Easter, it is unlikely that the Education Select Committee will receive the report until they return,’ he said.
‘Horrendous damage is being done to the IT training industry. Trainers are being put out of business,’ said Roger Tucket, former chief executive of training provider, Henley Community Online.
IT trainers remain furious about the way they have been treated. ‘The security was woeful, but it should have taken four weeks to sort out, not four months,’ said Tucket. Basic security features such as requiring a user name in addition to an account number would have made it harder for fraudsters to steal the money he added.
Minister for Adult Skills, John Healy told the Education Select Committee last week: ‘There were problems and shortcomings in the provision of security and the management of security…Capita were the expert technical specialists that we hired in this partnership to deliver the system,’ he said.