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Tony Collins is an investigative and campaigning journalist and former Executive Editor at Computer Weekly. With his friend and colleague David Bicknell he wrote "Crash", which found common factors in the world's largest public and private sector IT-related failures. He wrote "Open Verdict", a book on the strange deaths of defence scientists. He writes, and gives talks, on the tensions and disputes between suppliers and users.
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Linked-in ProfileMP asks NAO to consider probe into Siemens passport IT contract
MP suggests NAO inquiry after Home Office declines to explain large overspend on Siemens contract
Published 10:24, 27 July 11
Conservative MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, has asked Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, to consider an inquiry into a Siemens passport IT contract that cost £265m more than expected.
The extra spend with Siemens is exacerbated by the Home Office's apparent unwillingness to explain why a contract that was due to cost £80-£100m ended up costing £365m.
After the Home Office's press officer Andrew Bell politely declined to answer any of my questions on the Siemens contract I sent a note to Bacon who passed it onto Amyas Morse.
Bacon said to Morse: "I wondered if the NAO might consider looking at the Siemens contract for the IT infrastructure for the passport service? The Home Office appears to see relatively little need to justify the fact that an £80-100 million contract with Siemens actually cost £365 million."
Bacon also pointed out that CSC took over from Siemens in 2009. CSC has about £3bn worth of contracts under the failed NHS National Programme for IT, NPfIT.
As Gateway reviews are not published, Parliament has no certain way of knowing whether the Identity and Passport Service's £385m 10-year contract with CSC is deviating from the planned budget, scope or timetable. An investigation by the NAO would shed light on the Siemens and CSC contracts.
More details here.
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