The Office of Government Commerce has commissioned two
reports into the financial affairs of IT service giant EDS in the
last two years.
EDS runs a number of high-profile public sector contracts
including the NHS National Programme for IT and the Child Support
Agency, which has suffered chronic IT failures in the last couple
of years.
The OGC told the Sunday Times that it had commissioned reports
from the auditor Deloitte, following a request under the Freedom of
Information Act by the newspaper.
However, the OGC refused to release details of the reports,
called Ranger I and Ranger II, citing exemptions allowed in the FOI
Act regarding commercial confidentiality.
A spokesman for EDS confirmed the investigations had taken place
as part of the regular activities of the OGC.
"EDS co-operated fully with the investigations. It is part of
the OGC supplier relations work with the government’s strategic
partners," he said.
Earlier this month a consortia led by EDS and Cap Gemini was
shortlisted for an IT contract with the Metropolitan Police to
consolidate the London force’s IT services.
In January, the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee
found that IT failures had contributed to a backlog of tens of
thousands of cases at the CSA. However, the committee said that
management failure, as well as technical difficulties had
contributed to the failures.