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PCS criticises extension of MoD IT contract

22 December 2009

PCS today criticised the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) decision to extend an IT contract worth a total of £7 billion which has been beset by cost overruns and delays to the ATLAS consortium.

The extension of the contract is increment 3a of the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project which aims to replace a number of existing IT systems and create a single system covering the entire armed forces.

Worth an estimated £2 billion, the latest phase of the DII project has been delayed by more than year and will provide new desktop computers for RAF bases in the UK and military bases in Cyprus.

The extension of the contract comes despite a highly critical report of the DII project by the Public Accounts Committee earlier in the year. It pointed out that the project was over 18 months behind schedule and costs has already overrun by £182 million.

The committee also found that the ATLAS consortium had delivered less than half of the software supposed to run on the new system and that MoD staff were dissatisfied with DII.

The announcement to extend the contract comes less than a week after the MoD announced swingeing cuts to civilian staff numbers and defence equipment.

Commenting PCS General Secretary Mark Serwotka, said: "People will be amazed that the MoD are spending billions of pounds on an IT project which has been roundly criticised both by the Public Accounts Committee and MoD staff. Especially at a time when the MoD is planning on cutting thousands of civilian jobs which will damage support to front line troops.

"If the MoD need to make savings then DII should have been at the top of the list. A large part of this work could have been done much cheaper in house by MoD staff. To hand over billions of pounds to a private company for a contract beset by problems at time when thousands of MoD staff may face redundancy is completely wrong."
 

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