CSC admits to exaggerating NPfIT income

CSC has revealed that it intentionally exaggerated its income from the National Programme for IT in the NHS contract  NHS by £15.5m ($24m).

According to The Times, internal auditors found that the accounts had overstated the company’s income from the NPfIT over a four-year period, which has resulted in a number of staff members being suspended.

CSC also disclosed that it was under examination by the Inland Revenue.

In a statement to eHealth Insider, CSC said: "The $24m is an internal CSC accounting error and has no impact on our charges made to the NHS.

"The impact to CSC of this amount is that we overstated the figure that we needed to write-off in relation to our NHS business in December 2011 by $24m.

“It is entirely a matter for CSC and does not impact the NHS. In respect of the Inland revenue examining CSC’s tax returns, this is within the usual business practice of agreeing tax and is nothing unusual."

CSC told the Times that “certain finance employees based in the UK” had been aware of the errors and therefore the company has classified the blunders as “intentional."

In February, EHI reported that CSC had made a $1.49 billion write-off against its NHS contract, in what was thought to be the biggest ever write-off against a single IT project in the UK.

Since February, the company has made 1,140 job cuts, 500 of which were as a result of the failed NPfIT.

CSC was awarded NPfIT contracts worth £3 billion in 2003, and has delivered a range of clinical systems for the North, Midlands and East as the region’s local service provider.

But despite being given multiple deadline extensions and easing of contract terms in delivery and scope, CSC has been unable to get its electronic record Lorenzo signed off as ready for deployment across the NHS.

CSC and the Department of Health have been locked in negotiations since last spring when the scheduled ‘early adopter’ for Lorenzo in mental health, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, pulled out.

The Department of Health said in a statement: "We are aware of the out of period adjustments declared by CSC and are discussing the position with them.”