Barnet's IT infrastructure provider, 2e2, went into administration in February owing Barnet £220,000 which I blogged about here. Today the Council published a Delegated Powers Report showing that they have appointed Capita as an interim provider on the basis that they have already bid for this service as part of the NSCSO contract and so they might as well give it to them, even though the main decision is still subject to Judicial Review. I have no issue with the fact that they had to appoint someone very quickly as 2e2 were going to leave us in the lurch but did it have to go to Capita and how easily can the decision be unwound if the Judicial Review is successful?
I suppose the other question I would be asking is why did the Cabinet Resources Committee agree to reappoint 2e2 just 15 weeks before the company went bust and in so doing cost us £220,000 which we are unlikely to recover from the Administrators. Where was the oversight, where were the credit checks or was it just pushed through on the nod because everyone was focused on implementing One Barnet and forgetting about the day to day business of running the Council efficiently.
Who else bid? surely there must have been somebody. Capita cannot be the only game in town.
ReplyDeletesent an FOI 4 months ago to get the list of hardware used by the council. It was refused on the ground that the council does not have this information since it is handle by contractors. interesting, the implications of that.
ReplyDeleteHowever, similar question, though less detailed was answered in January 2011, and judging from the equipment listed, and knowing what crapita is using, giving this support contract to capita is a pure waste of money because this equipment (Sun servers) is not in their line of expertise. their implementations are based around Windows.