back to article Hewlett-Packard paid £1.7bn by UK.gov in 2 years – report

Hewlett-Packard is the single largest supplier of services to the British government, according to a new report. Meg Whitman’s PC and server company made in excess of £1.7bn off HMG in 2012 and 2013, the Institute for Government says. The group, however, warns that “some” of its figures are not accurate. According to the …

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  1. MrMur

    I read this on the BBC, but there were so many caveats to the data, it made the data look all pretty meaningless.

  2. spiny norman

    This is how transparent government works

    The data is published and it is freely available online. But, every central government department, every NHS trust, every local authority, publishes their individual data in a separate spreadsheet every month. In order to get a picture over one year for even one organisation, you have to download and consolidate 12 csv files, hoping the format doesn't change from one month to the next. To get a complete picture even for central government is a mind-boggling exercise. You then have to find a way of isolating IT spend from all the other types, bearing in mind the classifications aren't obvious or consistent.

    Thus the government can claim complete openness on spending, while making the data almost completely unusable.

    Result!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: This is how transparent government works

      The government have simply produced some guidelines, it's the individual authorities and government bodies who decide what they actually publish and how often they publish it. As long as they can publish a file that meets the minimum requirements set by government the box is ticked, whether it is of any use or benefit to the average citizen is a moot point. A favourite trick seems to be burying the data in a website so deeply that your average man on the street would never be able to find it. As you say, if they can find it, they are unlikely to be able to decipher it into anything meaningful.

      The government seem to be interested in making sure all government departments, NDPB's and local authorities adhere to their guidelines and have even published a list of organisations graded according to their level of compliance. The issue they have of course is the civil servants and elected councillors who may not share the same views or desires that they do.

      I once had a conversation with a civil servant around the time of a general election, I asked them what a change of government might mean to them and how they thought it would affect the way they were doing things. The answer was something along the lines of "they will try and change what we do but we'll whip them into shape just like we did the last lot; nothing will change here"

      Anon because I deal with these organisations every day... :-(

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