PFRA cancels IT project

Finance | Ian Allsop | 1 May 2007

A project to create an online booking service for street fundraisers has been cancelled by the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA) after it spent around £112,000 trying to develop the system. PFRA remains embroiled in a dispute with the system's software designer over payment for its services.

Work began in 2002 on the MapIT project, which aimed to simplify the site allocation process for street fundraisers by creating an online system where charities could bid for the sites made available by each local authority. Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the PFRA, said: 'We didn't feel it was going to be 'fit for purpose' in the light of the Charities Act regulatory proposals which finally emerged.'

The system had been troubled with technical hitches and although it been through some initial tests, had never run live. JVolution took over work on the software development after the departure of the project's initial consultants Compass.

Laurie Brown, director of JVolution, said the company was given notice about the cancellation of MapIT in January, but is still in dispute with the PFRA over payment for the contract. Both the PFRA and JVolution refused to comment further on the details of the contract while discussions about its termination were still ongoing.

An average of £22,500 was spent in each of the five years the project had been in development, an amount Aldridge said was 'not negligible, but then again it's not significant'. The PFRA has not abandoned its aim to develop an IT system for site allocation in the future, and the original MapIT Steering Group has been renamed the Site Allocation Working Party and given the task of thinking through options for allocation schemes which could be compliant with the regulations due to be introduced under the new Charities Act.

Directory: The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA)
Who's Who: Mick Aldridge

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