Audit Scotland will conduct an independent review into a cancelled police IT contract worth £60m.

The investigation was confirmed by the chief executive officer of the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) in a letter to Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur.

The contract was cancelled by Police Scotland in July this year over concerns that the project could not be completed on time or on budget.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats have dubbed the project and its cancellation a "shambles".

The SPA's John Foley wrote to McArthur: "I can confirm that Audit Scotland has now been commissioned by the Scottish Police Authority to carry out an Independent Lessons Learned Review and will report on its findings in due course."

Known as the i6 project, it was intended to be the "largest and most significant transformational change" ever undertaken by the force.

It aimed to merge and replace 135 existing IT and paper-based systems for around 20,000 officers and staff.

In February, Police Scotland's director of ICT Martin Leven told MSPs that the firm contracted to deliver the new system, Accenture, had "very clearly let us down".

McArthur, who is the Scottish Lib Dems' justice spokesman, linked the multimillion price tag to separate reports of cash-trapped officers being forced to fork out of their own pockets for equipment.

Commenting, McArthur said: "The i6 system was supposed to underpin the centralisation process forced through by the SNP at Holyrood and there are huge questions over how this flagship project fell apart so dramatically.

"It is right that there is a full independent review into this shambles and Audit Scotland are the right body to get to the bottom of this mess.

"The police spent millions on a system that has now been scrapped at a time we have had reports that officers are being forced to buy basic kit out of their own pockets.

"Audit Scotland need to press on as quickly as possible to ensure that the mistakes that were clearly made here are not repeated."

The Scottish Government insists the decision to cancel the contract will have no bearing on police budgets.

A government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Police Authority has made an agreement that ensures no detriment to Police Scotland finances or the public purse in the terminating of this contract.

"Both private and public sectors have faced difficulties with implementing such programmes and we are fully committed to learning from these experiences.

"We know the SPA are now carefully considering the best way to deliver cost effective and efficient systems to ensure our police officers have access the technology that will best allow them to do their jobs."