Chapter 12 of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) annual report examines the implementation progress of the Financial Management Shared Services (FMSS) programme.
Approved ten years ago, it aims to replace varied financial management and reporting systems across Government departments, with a single centralised system.
The rollout is being overseen by the National Shared Services Office and the report looks at how this has been progressing since 2020.
Today's analysis follows an earlier examination of the project in 2023 by the C&AG.
The report says there have been "significant delays" with the initiative, due in part to the scale of the undertaking; evolving cyber security requirements; disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and an underestimation of the complexities involved.
A revised budget of €115m to deploy the system across 48 Public Service Bodies (PSBs) by 2025 was approved in 2020.
But by the end of that timeframe, 83% of the budget had been spent with only a third of the bodies in question transferred.
The C&AG says there is no Government approval in place at present for any further extension of the timelines or budget.
Latest estimates suggest the full rollout of the new system will not be completed until 2029, with the Shared Services Office indicating that additional funding will be required to achieve this.
The report recommends that a "comprehensive plan" for the completion of the programme be put in place, with accurate, realistic and achievable targets, to address the "significant under-delivery" thus far.
It calls for a cost-benefit analysis of the options currently available, pointing out that the original budget for the project has doubled.
