The government's new CIO, John Suffolk, wants some
information from Gateway reviews of major, high-risk IT-related
projects in the public sector to be published.
In his first interview since becoming government CIO in June,
Suffolk said he would like the "traffic light" status of a project
- red, amber or green - to be published, together with a summary of
the broad strengths and weaknesses of the scheme.
"I would be comfortable with that," he said.
Gateway reviews are mandatory, independent checks on the
progress of large, high-risk, government IT-related projects and
programmes. They are carried out by the Treasury's Office of
Government Commerce, which has repeatedly blocked requests under
the Freedom of Information Act to publish the results of
reviews.
Office of Government Commerce officials have argued that the
reviews contain confidential advice from civil servants to the
senior responsible owners of projects.
Computer Weekly, supported by MPs of the three main parties, has
called for the reviews to be published to enable costly schemes to
be scrutinised by parliament, taxpayers and those involved in the
programmes, including end-users and suppliers.
Some departments and agencies do not let even their main IT
suppliers see the results of Gateway reviews.
Suffolk advocated the release of information from Gateway
reviews in a way that does not deter civil servants from discussing
frankly the progress or difficulties on projects.
He said, "Some agencies publish their reviews very widely, to
all the stakeholders and all of the boards involved. Some do
not.
"My belief is that the time is right to consider whether we do
publish some basic information on a Gateway."
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