21 July 2006
The Revenue & Customs department was right to stimulate competition for its major IT contract by paying bidding and transition costs, government auditors ruled this week.
The National Audit Office said the decision to pay £8.6m in contributions to bidding costs as well as funding transition costs was justified and an essential step to achieving value for money for the £3bn Aspire contract.
However, auditors queried whether R&C should have paid as much as £43.3m in transition costs. Their report suggested the department might have obtained better value for money by ensuring the proposals were well-designed in the first place.
NAO head Sir John Bourn said: 'The department successfully completed the first major re-competition of a large public sector IT contract and transfer from one supplier to another without a loss in service to the taxpayer.'
He added that the NAO's report on the Aspire experience offered useful lessons for other government departments.
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