Proposals to boost openness and accountability on
government projects - put forward by Computer Weekly - won the
support of senior figures in the IT industry when they were raised
at a Parliamentary hearing last week.
The support came at a hearing of the Work and Pensions subcommittee
headed by Sir Archy Kirkwood, chairman of the parent select
committee. The subcommittee is investigating ways of improving the
success rate of public sector IT projects.
MPs asked four witnesses from major IT companies that have
contracts with the Department for Work and Pensions whether good
practice should be mandatory and if independent "Gateway" reviews
of high- and medium-risk projects should be published. The
proposals had been put to the committee in a submission by Computer
Weekly.
At the hearing Kirkwood said, "A number of things leap out at me as
lessons from the written submissions. It would be possible for us
to recommend that there should be a statutory basis for best
practice enshrined in statutory instruments in the House of
Commons.
"I am not saying that we will recommend that but we could if we
wanted to, to try and get people to live up to best practice,
because it seems to me that the things you need to do are staring
everyone in the face."
When Kirkwood asked for the views of witnesses, Kevin Saunders,
account director for the Department for Work and Pensions at Atos
Origin, said that in principle he had no fundamental objections to
making best practice mandatory.
All the supplier representatives agreed that Gateway reviews of
government IT projects should be published.
John Corneille, a global partnering executive at IBM, replied
"absolutely" to the question. His colleague at IBM, Jan Gower
agreed, as did Derek Ward, vice-president of the publicsector at
Atos Origin.
Saunders said, "I cannot see why we would have a problem with
publication because we have been through them, we know how they
work and they make key decisions." Ward said had no objections
provided the reviews were published across the board and not
selectively.
Separately, John Higgins, chief executive at Intellect, the trade
association for suppliers, said the Office of Government Commerce
should publish Gateway reviews, at least in a synthesised format,
and possibly on an annual basis.
During the hearing the IBM and Atos Origin's representatives spoke
candidly about problems with government IT contracts.
Ward said IT projects could be improved if suppliers could tell
ministers a project was unrealistic without the assessment being
construed as a negative rather than a positive comment.
"Creating that space for communication in an open and honest way
will, I think, mitigate the major risks," said Ward.
Meanwhile Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee,
raised the campaign for reviews to be published in a debate in the
Commons. He said publication of the reviews would further
strengthen the process.
"If these matters were in the public domain and MPs, members of the
public and journalists could read about them, the department might
be helped to conclude that it should take a slightly more robust
view, and perhaps occasionally stop projects in their tracks," said
Bacon.
Early day motion
MP Vincent Cable has won support from MPs from all the main
parties for an early day motion in the House of Commons on
government computer contracts which backs Computer Weekly's calls
in its Shaking Up Government IT campaign.
The motion reads, "This house notes the recent report of the
National Audit Office on the Criminal Records Bureau and numerous
other reports of wasted public funds on public sector computer
projects. It further notes the evidence of Computer Weekly to the
Work and Pensions sub committee on computer projects; supports the
call for best practice to be enshrined in UK law; supports the call
for Gateway reviews by the Office of Government Commerce to be
published; and notes that government departments are sometimes
misusing the defence of commercial confidentiality to keep
information out of the public domain; and urges the government to
change this practice."
Among the MPs backing the early day motion were: Bob Spink,
Derek Wyatt, Colin Breed, Gregory Campbell, Andrew George, Bob
Russell, Nigel Jones, Paul Tyler, Paul Marsden, Edward Davey, Elfyn
Llwyd and Kevin McNamara.
Key points from the hearing
- Departments may set unrealistically tight deadlines. John
Corneille of IBM said, "I cannot remember a case when a minister
has approached us and said 'I think this needs to be delivered to
this timescale: what do you think?'" Witnesses agreed that
political timetables of implementation are sometimes "at the
margins of what is possible professionally"
- The Freedom of Information Act, due to come into full force
next year, will make little difference to openness on IT projects
because of the exclusion clauses l Relationships between suppliers
and departments can be strained by a lack of openness
- Having adequate contingency plans may be seen by departments as
a sign of failure.