WRITTEN ON November 27th, 2009 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Government Procurement, Save Time and Money, Uncategorized

The storm clouds that lashed the fat-cat bankers and expense-extracting MPs may now be shifting over to government IT suppliers with excessive profit margins and senior government IT staff with over-generous pay packages. The Daily Mail had a pop at Mike Mackay of the Youth Justice Board in August (and fair enough, I’d have thought, the country would be a better place if taxpayers paid him £350k NOT to push forward the “wiring up youth justice” plans). Now it may spread, to judge by some questions put to me recently (not that I know any answers).

One of Gordon Brown’s favoured efficiency czars muttered to me once over breakfast that what Whitehall called CIOs were, as a rule, merely overpaid IT project managers. Seems a bit harsh: surely these people sit on the Board, and are in a position to make services vastly better and contribute immense savings?

What’s the evidence? Do IT suppliers make excessive margins, or get paid for work that serves no useful purpose for the taxpayer? Are government CIOs overpaid for their level of responsibility, or by comparison to private-sector counterparts? Or is this all bar-room grumbling by disgruntled competitors and people with less successful careers?

Leave a comment or drop me a line if you want to be more discreet.