The Conservatives want to "unleash an army of armchair auditors"
to crawl over the Government's accounts, looking at IT and other
projects see for themselves whether value for money is being
delivered.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister
Frances
Maude told the Conservative Party conference today:
"The UK Government spends more on ICT than any other government
and yet the history of UK government ICT projects is littered with
budget overruns, delays and functional failures. Huge centralised
databases have been created, with a thoroughly casual approach to
safeguarding private data.
"We need a fundamental rethink. We need fewer mega-projects; a
rigid insistence on open standards and inter-operability; a level
playing field for open source software and for smaller
suppliers.
"Trust in politics is at an all time low and by making central
government transparent and accountable we can start to fix our
broken politics. Greater openness and accountability will improve
value for money and stop taxpayers' money being wasted.
"We want to unleash an army of 'armchair auditors' to crawl over
the Government's accounts - ordinary members of the public who will
be able to see for themselves whether their government is really
delivering value for money for them."
But Maude proposed few specific measures other than announcing
that all contacts over £10,000 being tendered by the government
would be published online.
The Conservatives have enlisted the help of
Tom
Steinberg to help them make government more open and efficient.
Steinberg is a digital democracy innovator who helped to build the
No 10 petitions website.
He is the founder of mySociety, a non-aligned organisation which
builds websites designed to enhance democracy. The sites include
TheyWorkForYou which
allows people to track their MP's activities and to contact
them.