Computing to give evidence on Whitehall IT

The House of Commons Work and Pensions sub-Committee has reached the next stage of its investigations into the administration of government IT projects.

Computing is one of a number of organisations, including Whitehall buying agency the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), supplier trade body Intellect and other media publications, invited to give evidence to the committee.

The key questions the committee is hoping to answer are:

• Should policy be simplified prior to drawing up an IT specification?

• Do bespoke IT systems ever work successfully?

• Is there an effective competitive process in the awarding of IT contracts with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)?

• Does a genuine transfer of risk occur between DWP and its suppliers?

• Does commercial confidentiality unnecessarily obscure proper transparency and accountability?

  Sir Peter Gershon, chief executive of the OGC, told the committee earlier this month that the Gateway Review project monitoring system has been revised and now requires a proven fallback arrangement in the event of problems with the main programme (Computing, 4 February).