Labour MP: Government can't deal with "wily" IT suppliers

Mitchell's comments were made in the House of Commons last week

An MP and member of the Public Accounts Committee has said in a Commons debate that he thinks government departments are duped by IT suppliers in the negotiation of contracts.

Labour MP Austin Mitchell said in parliament last week that the fault lies with both the departments and the salespeople for not negotiating the contract properly.

"All too often, departments seem incapable of dealing with the wily stratagems and sales patter of consultancy salesmen, particularly from the big houses, who offer expertise, but over-praise the product in question and forecast that it can do more than it actually can," he said.

Departments then try to set too many objectives, leading to repeated failure in IT contracts, according to Mitchell, who has been a member of the committee since 2005.

He cites the ATLAS contract on the Ministry of Defence's defence information infrastructure programme and the NHS National Programme for IT as examples of contracts that were not thought through at their inception.

"The government was trying to do too much with the systems, which were over-sold. Departments need better advice to put them on a more secure and effective platform for controlling the suppliers of IT systems," he said.

Austin goes on to point out that Labour's idealism often leads it to instigate projects without first thinking them through.