back to article HMRC still waiting for EDS cash

A committee of MPs has said the government has received little of the compensation due from EDS for problems with tax credit IT. EDS has paid only a fraction of the £26.5m due to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as compensation for problems with the delivery of a tax credit computer system, says a report by the Public Accounts …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    lol

    HMRC discovers corporates are far harder to get money out of then citizens.

  2. John Macintyre
    Paris Hilton

    er.. eh?

    'based on the condition that EDS won further business with Whitehall.

    EDS has been less successful in winning new contracts than HMRC expected'

    EDS: Here, use us, we built a pile of shite for this other group so we'd be perfect for you

    HMRC: They screwed us up, I'm sure another govt team would be more than happy to go through the same hell just so we can get some cash back

    Paris, cause is it just me or they the most stupid of agencies?

  3. Mat

    Hmmm.

    EDS seem to be a total pile of shite.. Didn't Derby County FC drop them as their sponsor a while back?

  4. James Pickett
    Happy

    @John Macintyre

    My thoughts exactly! Still, the excuse will come in handy the next time I'm behind with my payments. Sorry chaps, but I've been less successful.. etc.

    Still, I'm sure they'll come round when they're threatened with £100 fine...

  5. Alan Davies
    Joke

    The HMRC can wait!

    I want my pay rise out of EDS first!

    Joke icon because expecting a pay rise out of EDS is a joke.

  6. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Pirate

    Intellectual Bankruptcy ..Cycling Improficiency?

    "Controversially, the payment of compensation was also based on the condition that EDS won further business with Whitehall."

    Is that a most unpleasant Virtual Blackmail? Bully boy big stick tactics without any carrots/Mother Hubbard's Cupboard territory

  7. John Macintyre
    Paris Hilton

    @amanfromMars

    It's effectively a win-win situation:

    a) they win more contracts, thus pay out the cash from other govt departments whomt they'll screw over for every penny before providing a shite result, thus ensuring profits

    b) they won't get another contract, in which case they pay nothing.

    sounds like the same lee-way that underground consortium got before going bankrupt, instead of fixing the problem the govt gives them some contract that protects them from paying back anything, so they're guarenteed to provide the shittest service at the highest cost. bloody idiots need to get real, really riles me that they're so incompetent AND bloody useless yet use our tax so don't give a shit. When will the govt be held accountable? In a corporation jobs would have been lost, that'll teach em.

    They'll sue for wrongful dismissal I hear you cry? how is wasting £millions not a reason? They ain't worth the office space they occupy. More paris hiltons :x

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ah but!

    There are a number of government CTOs, CIOs, EIEIOs and such who still think that only EDS, Accenture, Fuji and IBM are capable of delivering large government IT solutions. Mind you, they all come from industry, and have never had to suffer public sector IT, which is a hell of a lot more complex than industry.

    PS. HMRC has always had trouble with getting money out of large companies and the very rich because they have so many ways of hiding it. Listening to my HMIT friends bitch about how some household names behave is a real eye opener.

  9. Dave Silver badge
    Coat

    obvious to say it, but...

    ...maybe EDS sent the cheque but it lying lost somewhere, next to a couple of CDs

    2nd coathook from the left, thanks...and pass me my brolly while you're at it.

  10. Pete James

    Your breaches, Mr Darcy!

    It really is about time HM Government stopped behaving like a two-bob tart giving BJs to so-called technology firms on the empty promise of a quick thrill. They never learn, they waste our cash in the process and it's about time this idiocy stopped once and for all.

    Screw EDS, pull the relevant staff back into direct employ and let the overpaid and underbrained management go hang. It's about this disgraceful diversion of public funds to organisations such as EDS, who consistently fail to deliver on set objectives was stopped once and for all. It's sickening that such huge sums are thrown away when it could be better utilised.

  11. The Other Steve
    Thumb Down

    Oh FFS

    Minutes of the Select Committee on Government IT Projects :

    Chairman : "Could the Minister from the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious give his opinion on how we can reduce the appalling costs and failure rate of our IT projects."

    MotBO : "Well, from the point of view of my department, it seems that since a small number of suppliers, in particular EDS, appear to be involved in all the failures, and have a consistently poor track record on completion and functionality delivered, it would probably be sensible if we, you know, considered that perhaps they aren't up to the job. Probably we should refine our tender process and very seriously consider looking at other suppliers."

    Chairman : "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

    MotBO : <sighs> "Let me simplify that for you, our tendering process sucks. EDS are not corporately competent to bid for these systems properly, never mind deliver them. Hows that ?"

    Chairman : "Still not quite on board with you there, sorry."

    MotBO : <grits teeth, clenches fists> "Listen, you fat useless idiot..."

    Chairman : <calls the honourable gentleman to order, a brief scuffle ensues> "Well, I don't see that we're making much progress here today, I call this meeting to a close. Who's for a great big expensed lunch ?"

  12. Daniel Wilkie
    Dead Vulture

    Adverts Ahoy

    heh, good old contextual ads :)

    http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y78/danwilkie/eds.jpg

    The dead vulture, because he can't take HMRC's stupidity anymore...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can someone tell me...

    How is it that the government can't run their own IT consultancy? I mean, it's not as if there isn't enough requirement in the public sector to keep at least couple of major consultancies running. If it's done as a government agency you get all the benefits of internal IT departments, without the profiteering and badly treated staff of external companies like EDS, but you also get benefits of scale that you would with an external company. Once a project has been designed, the government consultancy work with the department who have commissioned it, to install and handover. If the department is too small to have their own IT people, have a government agency who runs the IT for all the small departments, like outsourcing, but with Public sector.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    nitpicking

    EDS have nothing to do with the tax credit stuff anymore, they lost the whole IT contract to the HMRC 3 years ago

    EDS is very much a dead bird, it might be why there shedding a whole shit load of jobs

  15. MikeWW
    Paris Hilton

    @ John Macintyre

    Not forgetting the performance bonuses that are written into their contracts, which basically mean they'll get another shoebox full of cash whether the system goes belly up or not. These are necessary to "attract the right kind of people" i.e. those that have no integrity or ability just want the cold hard cash. Paris Hilton is therefore obvious.

  16. Nick
    Boffin

    Ha ha

    The '5% discount of your next order' offer is very first offer made in response to complaints. It usually shakes off the complete idiots, but not the partial ones or those with any modicum of commercial nouse or awareness of contractual law.

    Ah I see now.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    In fairness to EDS....

    Yes, the HMRC tax credit system they delivered isn't great, but the real problem is the data input clerks who enter it into that system.

    I was one of them for long enough.

    Maybe if Fujitsu/Capgemini/ASPIRE would have paid us all more than absolute minimum wage, and weren't sacking people(mostly old people and teenagers, the only ones who'd work for such a pittance) randomly (the "replaceable cog" mentality) we would have given a shit about the data.

  18. James Pickett
    Happy

    Credit

    "EDS have nothing to do with the tax credit stuff anymore"

    That probably explains why ours came through in under a week!

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Can't they just get the money under threat of distraint?

    Just before Christmas I had a lovely letter from HMRC threatening to levy full and final settlement with distraint if they hadn't heard from me in seven days (five of which were public holidays). At the bottom of said letter, it reminded me that interest was running.

    Sheesh.

  20. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Flame

    @ John Macintyre and @amanfromMars .... Straight dope talk

    Hear, hear ... "hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!" ...... http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhear.html

    One does wonder at times what percentage of the Westminster Village would test Positive for Drugs Use and/or Abuse? I wonder if it would be Representative of National figures or be markedly different?

    And the flame because it cold in the Cold without a Line Inside.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Nice idea

    I wasn't aware that paying fines was something that could be done by installments as and when I feel like it and if I find any spare 5 pence pieces down the back of the sofa.

    Thank-you EDS - you found a solution!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Managers ?

    Maybe if EDS got rid of the losers that it has in management position (people management and account management) then maybe there would be a chance of delivering something that actually works and is what the customer wants.

    I was told by a customer to expect a specific piece of work to hit our desks "soon" EIGHT bloody months later we got it, after 4 levels of EDS "management" on the account, and 2 levels or our management had reviewed the request (justified their existence), and the so called "technical architects" (to be fair I do know two of them that are good) had stuck their 2pence worth in. I wonder what the customer would have been able to afford (or save) without the loser managers in the way. With this round of redundancies, the manager vs doer ratio slips again, but what the heck, we've got Best Shoring to handle the overflow.

    Best Shoring ! Now there's a great idea, so, it takes them twice as long and to deliver something that works, doesn't matter does it ? Of course not, it's CHEAPER and that's all the customer cares about isn't it ? Deadlines don't matter, and it will be right after it's sent back three time won't it ?

    Talk about frustrating ! There's so many people that are actually capable of delivering decent work if the idiots would let them do it.

    I can't understand why the government would want to give contracts to EDS, it's not as if the track record is very good ! I wonder if anyone would use them if they took a tour of internal systems. SharePoint anyone ?

  23. RW
    IT Angle

    @ Fraser

    "How is it that the government can't run their own IT consultancy?"

    Some possibilities:

    1. Because the mantra "run government in a businesslike way" has been misunderstood as "run government like a business". Big diff.

    2. Because IT workers are clearly intellectually elitist economic parasites and we don't want those on the public payroll.

    3. Because, following rewording of the relevant mantra, a touching faith has arisen that the public sector is incapable of doing anything right, whereas the private sector can walk on water.

    4. Because politicians, esp. the Bolshevists of The Party of The People, are addicted to micromanagement.

    5. Because public sector managers are far too often appointed/promoted for reasons of their political leanings or sheer PCness.

    6. Because politicians are suckers who believe salesmen's promises.

    7. Because you can train monkeys to write software, so why pay more than a few bananas a day?

    Take your pick, one or all or any combination (linear or nonlinear) thereof.

    Icon because most of these reasons have very little to do with IT.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Watch out late payers!

    Hey EDS, better watch out!

    HMRC load interest at 8½% for late payments! LOL!

  25. Ishkandar
    Happy

    Just sue the pants off EDS !!

    I love EDS !! Boiled, roasted or basted in its own juices !!

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