The Welsh Assembly has awarded a 10-year, £200m IT
services contract to Siemens Business Services.
The contract includes infrastructure overhauls of the Welsh
Assembly’s systems and also support for the implementation of
electronic voting in Assembly elections.
In 2002, the Welsh Assembly was slammed by the National Audit
Office for the cost of its IT systems delivered through a PFI
contract extended to the Assembly from the Welsh Office. These
systems were provided and supported by Siemens Business
Services.
The new contract sees Siemens Business Services overseeing
separate IT projects delivered by PA Consulting Group, Cap Gemini
Ernst & Young and Siemens Communications.
PA Consulting will lead the “business design and change
programme”, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young will carry out selected
application development projects, and Siemens Communications will
deliver telecoms and video conferencing services.
A Cap Gemini Ernst & Young installed system at the Welsh
Assembly for making subsidy payments to farmers was criticised by
the National Audit Office in November 2003.
Payments totalling £50m due in October 2002 had not been paid
six months later, according to the NAO. Problems included
underestimating the amount of testing needed, faults with scanning
technology, the creation of a new customer database and Welsh
Assembly staff being unfamiliar with the systems.
This was compounded by problems in delivering the necessary
training programme, the NAO report said.
John Bourn, head of the NAO, said that despite these problems,
the payments system should help the assembly deliver improved
services to Welsh farmers.