UK Treasury outlines procurement rules

The Treasury has laid down the law to local government managers over IT procurement, even though its own track record is something of an embarrassment.

The Treasury has laid down the law to local government managers over IT procurement, even though its own track record is something of an embarrassment.

Despite a series of high-profile IT failures at the Passport Office and the Immigration Directorate, Treasury chief secretary Andrew Smith last week published guidelines from the Office of Government Commerce - a division of the Treasury - for procurement related to all central government projects.

Speaking at the launch of the 'Gateway review' scheme, Smith said: "Failure doesn't come cheap and the public is no longer prepared to accept it in the development and construction of major government projects. Poor procurement leads to the waste of public finances."

The Gateway scheme poses five hurdles that must be cleared in the life span of a project, and specifically covers justification, sourcing, implementation and post implementation.

Robin Carsberg, head of technology services at Braintree Council, and senior vice president of the Society of IT Managers, said that while some of the measures were common sense, it did not hurt to stress the point.

"Sometimes projects go wrong. In local government they don't go quite so resoundingly wrong as the recent problems at the Passport Office and Immigration Directorate. It would be easy to say this is nonsensical, but the reality is 'there but for the grace of God go any of us'. We need to understand and share the lessons," he said.

Carsberg explained that the fourth stage was particularly important. "The testing of a major project is always lengthy and in-depth. There's always the temptation, particularly when up against a difficult schedule, that testing could be cut," he said.

The Gateway process

The Government wants local and regional IT managers to use the national template. The process comprises five major 'gates' through which projects must pass before they can be given approval to proceed. These are: