IT giants 'ripping off Whitehall', say MPs

[fullyautomatix]

Labour's socialist principles in action !

Same happens in NHS.

Same happens in MOD.

Same happens in BBC.

Fact is, remove all of these corrupt practices and half the businesses in this country will collapse.

[NickFitz]

Labour's socialist principles in action !

WTF are you on about? It was Margaret Thatcher's government that started outsourcing these huge IT projects to their friends at the big consultancies. That was one of the things Blair borrowed from Thatcher so as to ensure that New Labour could never be confused with socialism (except, it now appears, by the terminally moronic).

[AtW]

It was Margaret Thatcher's government that started outsourcing these huge IT projects to their friends at the big consultancies.

I believe Thatcher banned one big consultancy for rip off and/or bad work (usually comes together) from bidding for any Govt contract.

[Churchill]

Does no-one else see this as laying the groundwork for bringing in more Bobs?

[DodgyAgent]

WTF are you on about? It was Margaret Thatcher's government that started outsourcing these huge IT projects to their friends at the big consultancies. That was one of the things Blair borrowed from Thatcher so as to ensure that New Labour could never be confused with socialism (except, it now appears, by the terminally moronic).

It was Margaret Thatcher that released the core of British Industry from the control of the trade unions. As a result of which she created a whole industry for independent IT contractors. If it had not been for her tw*ts like you would have carried on earning what you are really worth - £25k a year

[fullyautomatix]

WTF are you on about? It was Margaret Thatcher's government that started outsourcing these huge IT projects to their friends at the big consultancies. That was one of the things Blair borrowed from Thatcher so as to ensure that New Labour could never be confused with socialism (except, it now appears, by the terminally moronic).

You can **** off Nick. Stop being a twat who has his head in his arse. Labour was in power for 12 years and ruined the country saddling us with billions od debt and all you Labour voters so is blame Thatcher for your failures. You had 12 years to sort out the mess if it was Thatcher who created it but no, billions were poured into wasteful IT projects in NHS, MOD and various other offices.

[swamp]

The end result should be a big win for independent contractors

[Churchill]

The end result should be a big win for independent contractors

Have you ever tried herding cats?

[rollingergrund]

Interesting article given that Bernard Jenkin was the person in the MP expenses scandal ordered to payback the highest figure (63k) for claiming rent for staying in his sister-in-law's farmhouse that was not even in the constituency he was responsible for. He had it reduced to 36k successfully claiming he was unaware of a law change in 2006 that made it illegal to claim for rent from a relative.

As for his quotes it would be nice the superficial quotes could be embellished. They do not state what is the standard rate for contractors. How did this get past the audit process? If I claimed 3500 GP for a desktop PC whose value was 500 GBP how would HMRC view this. Same goes if I used an accountant that was 10 times above the market rate how would they treat the claim for the expense ?

The real culprits here are the civil servants responsible for resourcing the projects and the government for place such ridiculous requirements for using vendors for outsourcing. Until recently only 4 or 5 consultancies satisfied the requirements for outsourcing to such a degree that 3 very large consultancies had to club together as a consortium so they could tender for a contract. That contract was declared by the government department to cost 2 billion GBP though they believed the cost to be over 5 billion (but kept quiet about it) two years later the cost was over 7 billion. The project was a single platform. It is not the consultancies that are ripping off it is the civil service that is doing it. This project has been going on for over 5 years and is still not complete for the initial requirements. Amazingly that consortium is still being considered for new projects.

[rollingergrund]

The end result should be a big win for independent contractors

Why do you think that?