Gateway: best practice legislation not needed

Government IT projects would not benefit from legislation enforcing best practice or from the publication of Gateway monitoring reports, says Ian Glenday, the Gateway programme executive director for the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

Talking exclusively to Computing, Glenday said there is no doubt Whitehall's mission critical projects are better handled now than before the introduction of the monitoring process.

'We are pushing in the same direction and trying to improve government delivery - the only disagreement is on the best way to do it,' said Glenday.

Gateway Reviews form a six-step process to monitor best practice at key stages starting with the initial business case. They are conducted by independent teams put together by OGC - the buying agency for Whitehall departments. The reports use a red/amber/green code to emphasise areas needing attention.

Gateways are not secret, says Glenday.

'They are not "personal" documents - they are used widely in departments and are ultimately accessible by the National Audit Office (NAO),' he said.

Departments are free to publish their reports, but OGC would advise against it.

'Publication would change the current openness of people talking to the Gateway teams, and the way the reports are written,' said Glenday.

'They are punchy and to the point and if they were public they would take longer to write and longer to clear, and lose their real-time promptness,' he said.

Until the projects currently at the procurement stage, and therefore subject to Gateways since their inception, come to fruition, it is too soon to be sure of the need for legislation.

'The pressure being built into the system now is already showing results, therefore we want to see the impact of what we have already done before getting sidelined into something quite different.

'Statutory instruments already exist in the NAO's right to investigate - there are no deep, dark secrets, just appropriate timescales and ways of handling things to get the best results,' he said.