Government announces shortlist for ID card contracts
Five stooges sniff the pork barrel
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Updated The government released the shortlist of five possible suppliers for its delayed ID card project this morning.
The five remaining bidders are IBM, Fujitsu, CSC, Thales and EDS.
Originally eight companies - the above along with Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria - were listed. But Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria have all pulled out of the procurement process.
The Home Office have confirmed that the five companies are: CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, and Thales. They are being invited to sign framework contracts to form a "Strategic Supplier Group". The five will then "compete in a series of mini-competitions to win specific contracts for the various projects."
Given the huge entertainment value of failing government IT contracts running an actual "It's a Knockout" competition sounds like a brilliant idea.
Bill Crowthers, executive director of the Identity and Passport Service, said: “I am very proud of what has been achieved. This contract is both innovative and protective of the public purse and all five suppliers have agreed to provide a co-operative working environment.” The use of the group will mean IPS can carry out shorter procurement processes, it is claimed.
It is likely that CSC will miss out getting to the next stage, getting a framework deal, according toThe Times. CSC has been struggling recently and cut a third of jobs from its infrastructure unit in October last year.
Because of Tory party gains, and their promise to scrap the project, costs are likely to rise even higher because bidding companies must factor in the risk that the project is cancelled.
The IPS also announced that the company which makes biometric passports 3M-SPSL will manufacture the actual cards for airport workers and others who will have to get cards in 2009. Young people will be the next to be targetted in 2010. ®
COMMENTS
@Please let EDS get it
Why? So the government is forced to borrow yet MORE money?
In the UK, we're already taxed into the deck, why they insist on spending insane amounts of money on companies who'll only fuck it up is beyond me.
I for one will refuse to carry, or possess any form of compulsory ID, they can send me to prison if that's what they want (it's a fucking holiday camp nowadays anyway)
Nazional ID Cards!
It's mind-blowing that some of these companies can even get on the list let alone be considered!
There must be a lot of money in this, whether or not Nazional ID comes about because ...
1 The Tories are heading for a General Election win
2 The Tories have promised to scrap the Nazional ID Card
4 Comrade Brown plus apparatchiks may be doomed
So, along with others, I hope it's "Let's Ruin Another Project" EDS who win the day.
@AC: Petrol cans
"Did you know that you can only fill up a maximum of 2 petrol cans at a petrol station and that each can can only be a maximum of 10 litres."
It's a piece of bureaucratic control-freakery left over from the 1973 OPEC crisis, when massive powers to control the distribution of fuel were assumed, not a lot to do with terrorism at all. But doubtless that is the present excuse for retaining them.
Goes to show that stopping ideas such as ID cards is easier than scrapping them. There is no ingenuity like that of officials in retaining and elaborating old regulations, and repurposing them when challenged.
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