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back to article DWP spreads IT spending around

Figures for May to September of this year appear to show the Department for Work and Pensions giving proportionately less work to its two largest suppliers. Spending data published by the government on 19 November shows it spent £224.3m with HP during the five month period, its main IT partner and second largest supplier of …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    We saved money by bringing in...

    ...from Capita. Our Academy support came in house and we're saving 10's of thousands. It is actually saving public sector redundancies here.

    I never have managed to see how it was cheaper to pay another company that has to make profit on top of do the same job. Especially as when there is an organisational change, (as there inevitably is in public sector as governments change the rules) they charge a fortune to change the contract further down the line.

    Public sector needs to get to grips with its management problems. That's the only way it will actually save public money. Outsourcing will just cost more and more.

    No one has yet convinced me otherwise.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      outsourcing

      outsourcing can save money if you are a small organisation and you outsource to a large organisation who can use their large size to get lower per-unit costs (for example a £5/month web host vs buying servers, connectivity and power...)

      however there are outsourcing companies who ONLY have government contracts, i defy anyone to try and justify how it could ever be cheaper to outsource to someone who doesn't have any clients except for you!

      and as for nearly every sector of the government selling off its property to private companies then renting it back... do they really think the PROFIT MAKING companies have gone in to it expecting to lose money on the deal? of course not, those companies will make huge profits, a portion of which will no doubt find its way back to the pen pusher who came up with the idea of giving them OUR money...

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Unhappy

        I'll bite.

        It can work out cheaper because civil servants have what is effectively a job for life and can't be sacked for even gross negligence like killing someone. Additionally, rewarding good behaviour does not compute in the public sector. (bonus? Might play badly in the newspapers, forget it!)

        Consequently, with no reason to fear not doing anything and no reason to constructively do anything above the minimum requirement Public sector staff have the same work ethic as was found in communist Russia.

        Frankly, the quality and quantity of work produced by public sector staff is so low that I can imagine that it often does work out cheaper to outsource 20 jobs to a private company that only needs ~10 people to do a better job, and make a profit on it as well. The government department gets a better service for less cost.

        And yes, I know how it sounds. I used to think the same as the OP before managing a public sector IT support team. Experience is a hard teacher.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another snout at the trough

    Given that Fujitsu won the desktop tower from HP/EDS early this year, I imagine some of that cash will have started to flow their way?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      true... but the DWP will still be spending less overall...

      as Fujitsu undercut HP on the two contracts they took off them.

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