Revenue under fire over IT contract
The Commons Public Accounts Committee has called on the Inland Revenue for greater use of benchmarking when using IT company EDS.
The Revenue has been ordered to do more to ensure it gets value for money from their £2.4bn partnership deal with IT services supplier. The orignal contract with EDS was worth £1bn, but that figure has now soared.
They also demanded the company part with more of the savings they achieve buying hardware using its buying power.
The Revenue reassured the committee it is not locked into the partnership and will be free to mount a rigorous re-tendering exercise when the contract expires in 2004.
The committee reported the government had made the strategic management of IT services a top priority for the new Office of Government Commerce, amidst mounting concern at the way a handful of major suppliers have won the bulk of government work.
EDS alone has 15 major contracts worth £700 million.