UK Govt plans procurement overhaul to slash IT spend

Bill McCluggage, deputy government CIO and director of ICT strategy and policy at the Office of the Government, has outlined how the UK government will reduce IT spend by revamping how systems are procured and operated. He said, "It is quite an interesting time, with some 120-days since the new government. The new administration's policy is to promote small business procurement so that 25% of government contracts should be awarded to SMEs. This has an impact on ICT, he said: "We want to move away from large system integrators."

Further government IT spending will become more transparent, according to McCluggage. He said the government intended to publish all tenders online to show what contracts were available. The new administration is looking to cut costs across government departments and IT is in the firing line. IT is regarded as a commodity expense. So IT projects are be re-evaluated across government departments. McCluggage said, "The government IT strategy is clearly focused on reducing the cost structure while improving current services."

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