A system to modernise Northern Ireland's civil service administration has cost almost £15 million to introduce, it was revealed last night.

The Electronic Human Resources (eHR) system was launched in 2006 to provide personnel and payroll services from a shared centre staffed and run by the private sector.

The bill was unveiled tonight following a written response by Finance Minister Nigel Dodds to SDLP Assembly member John Dallat.

He claimed: "A large whack of this expenditure has gone on external consultancy fees which has been the curse of the civil service in recent years.

"It is important to take seriously the recently published Bain Report which advocates decentralisation of 10,000 public sector jobs.

"It is also critical that we question the benefits of outsourcing government services. This is now particularly true given the serious economic crisis which we find ourselves in."

The change is part of efforts to overhaul the civil service. The £14.7 million total included management of the tendering process to award the contract and implementation work since the project began in 2002/03.

Mr Dallat said it didn't include an additional £5.1 million to cover the cost of staff employed by the Department of Finance and Personnel not directly involved in the management of the eHR contract but who have contributed to the planning and implementation of services to be delivered.

He added a further £1.4 million has been paid by the Department to staff employed in the management of the contract.

The eHR contract was awarded to Fujitsu in March 2006.

Mr Dodds defended the actions of his department in another written response.

"The outsourcing of human resource services through the eHR contract has resulted in financial savings being generated from the redeployment of in the region of 500 NICS staff to other duties in the NICS as well as savings achieved through the termination of existing HR services contracts.

"These financial savings are being used to fund the eHR service charges over the lifetime of the contract to deliver a modern, faster, more, effective personnel service which supports the NICS and NIO in meeting their business objectives."

A Department of Finance spokeswoman said: "HR Connect is a major programme designed to modernise the way personnel services are delivered in the Northern Ireland civil service.

"Over the 15-year life of the programme, the project is designed to be cost neutral but will introduce radically improved ways of working using modern technology.

"Whilst implementation of some aspects of the project have been delayed, the project is now making very good progress and plans are in place for full implementation during the first half of 2009."