Government plans for a single authentication system for citizens accessing public services online may be derailed by procurement issues branded by one industry insider as ‘rank bad practice’.

The GC Register component of the £27m Government Connects (GC) scheme will allow citizens to identify themselves once at login, and then be recognised by all public sector bodies that subscribe to the scheme.

But council and industry groups are warning that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) is creating a de facto monopoly by endorsing a single product – CGI Excelsior. They are also concerned that the central GC team has not been clear about how such decisions are being made.

‘They are riding roughshod over what should be considered to be best practice – this is rank bad practice,’ said a source close to the procurement.

Supplier group Intellect has written to DCLG to highlight industry concerns.

‘The present course restricts customer choice by essentially mandating a single product, and inhibits access to the innovation provided by industry,’ says the letter, seen by Computing.

‘There has been inadequate consideration and evaluation of the different solutions for GC Register and any immediate decision would be both premature and commercially unsound,’ it warns.

Council representatives are also apprehensive.

‘We have asked a number of questions about the choice that has been made and the robustness and transparency of the processes so far,’ said Kate Mountain, chief executive of local authority user group Socitm.

‘We are hoping that there will be the establishment of usable standards for local government from which suppliers can develop their products.’

Intellect government director Nick Kalisperas said: ‘The project team has communicated poorly and endorsed a single solution after a number of suppliers spent time and money developing an alternative set of products. Such practices erode the industry’s interest in bidding for similar procurements in the future.’

A DCLG spokesman says GC is not designating one single product for the entire local government market.

‘Local authorities will continue to have the choice of sign-up manager solutions offered by the vendor community,’ he said.

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