The department officially announced the winner of the Aspire project this morning after a bidding process that lasted 21 months. CGEY and Fujitsu will take over the £3bn, 10 year contract from mid-2004.

While the decision is an understandable one following one of the most disastrous years in memory for the department, changing IT suppliers will be no easy task.

A recent survey carried out by Accountancy Age in conjunction with Sage, found that over a third of accountants believed the Revenue's partnership with EDS should be reviewed. The main reasons given were unreliability and too many errors.

Nick Montagu, chairman of the Inland Revenue, said: 'I am genuinely delighted with the outcome of this competition. The Inland Revenue remains at the forefront of themes that the government wants to pursue - modernising public service, welfare reform and the expansion of e-services. These present huge challenges. We need a technology partner who can help us to meet them.'

The decision comes after a seemingly never-ending campaign by opposition MPs to see heads roll over the tax credits fiasco.