The spending review spreadsheet
As part of its austerity planning, the government tasked Sir Philip Green to review government procurement procedures. Naturally, IT features heavily in this review, and the key finding of the report is "The Government is failing to leverage both its credit rating and its scale".
The report has ascertained that central government spends £61 million per year on 460,000 desktop computers and 60,000 laptops. Considering its buying power, it is surprising that it is not buying direct from the manufacturers. Instead there are 13 different suppliers involved with prices ranging from a modest £353 for a desktop PC up to £2000 for some high-end laptops. The bill for its consumables is slightly higher, £84 million per year. Green found that the price that government pays for a box of paper ranges from a low price of £8 up to a high of £73 per box, and ink cartridges range from £86 to £398 each. Printer ink is more expensive by volume than Dom Perignon champagne, but it is still difficult to find a cartridge which retails for more than £100.
Those costs though are relatively minor. More startling figures can be found in his report on software costs. Green reports that one software development contract is priced at £100 million per year, and there is six years still to run on the contract with no provision to cancel it should no further development be required. Another software supplier has several government contracts which together are worth £300 million per year for the next three years. Green also reports on software contracts where development work is routinely priced in excess of £1000 per day.
The Green Report (PDF)
www.skillzone.net/shortcut/nl34green
Readers may be interested to note that Sir Philip Green features in the list of the top ten richest people in Britain and is head of the Arcadia Group of retail outlets which includes Burton, Dorothy Perkins, and Top Shop. In 2008 his wealth was estimated at £4.3 billion.
I have commented previously on the high costs of running government websites, and those too now look likely to be closed as a way of cutting costs in the spending review. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told Parliament there was no centrally held data on how many government websites there really are, and added that another 81 sites have been "found" since the coalition took up office in May, giving a total of 742. Maude indicated that 75% of these will be closed down. It should be pointed out, of course, that closing 75% of its websites will not save 75% of its website costs.
Whilst cuts in the spending review have received a lot of publicity, plans for the government to spend billions on additional technology have gone largely unnoticed. The government has given its approval for the Intercept Modernisation Programme which will require internet service providers to install interception equipment on their networks to capture details of who you contact, when, where and how. Email, webmail, Facebook and Skype connections are all likely to be routinely recorded. This is despite having previously said it would "end the storage of internet and e-mail records without good reason". Presumably, like the last government, it is using the "war on terror" as good reason for this major intrusion into privacy without any public consultation, debate or mandate.
25th October 2010
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.