WRITTEN ON February 23rd, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Government Procurement

Can someone remind me why there were such dark rumours around project True North? Or is there some legal settlement which means it can’t be spoken of? I do recall people speaking in outraged tones about this, but I’ve forgotten what they said.

And what’s all this about the MoD applying DefStan requirements to packs of tissues?

Given that every contract awarded means one happy winner and several disgruntled losers perhaps we’d expect residual griping. Especially since public servants can’t give the other side on the record. I wonder if we’ll hear about any exemplary procurements as well.

UPDATE Yes. Someone has reminded me.

True North was meant to provide a common-service secure hosting environment for the 2nd Generation Government Gateway & GovDirect. It was to provide content management for all Gov and the secure environment for hosting.

Suppliers didnt seem to want to bid: EDS withdrew, then Fujitsu. I think the shortlist was Cable & Wireless with Sema (now Atos) against ITnet making final presentations in the luxurious surroundings of some city law firm. C&W/Atos withdrew; ITnet got a contract which was later repudiated, followed by expensive litigation etc. Serco then took over ITnet and there was an eventual settlement.

The clunky old Gateway continues to process self assessment returns etc; new competition underway.

Apparently the person who can tell us all about it is Alan Mather. The good news is I wont even need to email him, because he takes RSS feed. Alan – what’s the story here? Or is it all sub judice?