Sign in / up

back to article Gov ICT contracts to go online in July

The prime minister has told government departments to publish all new ICT contracts online from July 2010. In a letter to departments dated 1 June 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron set out a timetable for the publication of public sector datasets. In addition to ICT contracts, departments will be expected to publish all …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Gadzooks!

    Sirrah!

    I am warming to this new coalition government of do-ability!

    And stunned at oneself at the doing of the same and can only end this post with a

    <polite applause>

    0 0
  2. JimC

    It already costs...

    The public sector about double the effort to place a contract than the private sector because of EU regulations and all the rest of it. Can't help thinking this is just going to up the old overheads a bit more... Yeah, sure a bit of visibility is a good thing, but in cases where old Bill and old Fred are doing corrupt deals at the golf club won't they just hide them a different way? A couple more shell companies? A bit more mutual back scratching of the "you bid for that one and I'll bid for this one" variety...

    0 2
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      are you trying to suggest....

      That they are just going to break it down into 10 £9,999 contracts, with a single supplier, rather than 1 £100,000 contract so that it's not published.

      2 0
      1. Juillen 1
        Reply Icon

        Not really..

        The sum payable will be 100k for the project; accounting gets very difficult to keep track of if people split things apart like that. Plus, they'd be had for fraud. Not a very wise career move.

        Nobody really has a problem with the figures being released to public (where better to hide things than in plain sight? Almost nobody has the time to browse all the data anyway!).

        To the naysayers who say "It's all available under FOI", yes it is. But every FOI takes a LOT of resource to answer. If everyone wanted to browse them, then the public sector would have real issues (DOS by sneakernet).

        Having simple reports from the Finance servers, run monthly and sent off, covering all contract types above 10k isn't onerous. It'll just be bad if it becomes a manual process (so favoured in the Public Sector because not that many believe they need to be technical)..

        0 0
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Paris Hilton

        A good point for sure

        And it readily raises the topic, theme and accurate observation that UK local authorities do not wish, want or seek to be accountable.

        What conclusions might we reach about individuals in a local authority who seek to split a £27k contract into three contracts of less than £10k?

        Well, the first seems to be an ambition to avoid accountability with an equal in magnitude ambition to avoid integrity both in professional conduct and meaningfully accurate offering of a meaningful contract.

        Bring back the death penalty I say! (or equally just tell local authority people doing above that they will lose their pension = it will put fear of whatever deity into them for sure)

        0 0
  3. Reality Dysfunction
    FAIL

    cut spending.... cut quangoes

    Nice to see they are going to create a new quango "Public Sector Transparency Board" with some jobs for the boys to help cut public spending.

    0 2
  4. Al 18

    good start

    This will save lots of advertising costs.

    A standard contract with necessary standard variations would save the industry a bucket load of cash.

    2 0
  5. Mickey Porkpies
    FAIL

    great savings guys

    and how is all this going to be paid for?? diverting money away from services to make it easier for all our uni friends to get a slice of the gravy train

    get real... all this data is accessible via FOI (except all the central gov stuff) this is going to cost thousands to manage.

    this comes from MP's who wouldn't publish their own expenses without blanking out.

    0 2
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      FOI - no its not!

      Wrong. Commercial in Confidance is still used too often as a "get out" clause for contracts not being released under FOI. Should be outlawed, like in some other countries.

      Oh wait - that's what this is about. Cool!!!

      2 0
  6. Francis Irving
    Thumb Up

    Not available via FOI

    @Mickey Porkpies - contracts generally aren't released under FOI, due to "commercial confidentiality". I'm guessing the coalition will later make a law change to reduce the power of that excuse...

    1 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      depends on what the level of information is available

      Basic info available should be: contract title, winner of contract, cost, and start/end date.

      If C in C condition excludes any of this, then its a mockery.

      0 0
  7. SR24
    Thumb Up

    The first council published last week

    The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has already published their spend over £500 for the last year:

    http://www.spotlightonspend.org.uk/Lite/996/

    0 0
  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Does this include the price?

    Does this include the agreed price or the contract as tendered?

    Potentially a good opportunity to use reverse auctions to drive down costs?

    0 0
  9. I. Aproveofitspendingonspecificprojects 1
    Paris Hilton

    What about the unemployed?

    Doh!

    I mean Interns.

    Do we get a peek at who is employing unpaid labour in a country where it is illegal not to pay a minimum wage?

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.