03 Aug 2006

Suppliers’ input on ID Scheme procurement, via Intellect

The cosy Cabal between the government and the trade association Intellect has laid an egg in the form of the ID Scheme market sounding

As a supplier who has registered an interest in Identity Cards, you may be interested to see the results of the Identity and Passport Service’s market soundings exercise on the proposed procurement strategy for Identity Cards, which have been published today. Details of the exercise and how to get copies of the results can be found on our website…

It seems that IPS accepts the need to establish how various government identity schemes relate to each other (but I’m not sure whether it accepts the need to see what’s going on in the world of on-line identity developments, which is moving far faster than any government scheme).

The suppliers have sensibly called for publication of the business case, saying that would do much to reinforce the rationale for the programme and address some of the misconceptions that exist. But I think what they call the misconceptions may be sincere and well-founded concerns. Without prejudging the issue, it seems just as likely that publishing whatever business case there may be would reinforce the scepticism and undermine the rationale for the programme. We dont believe there is a valid business case, and the idea that publishing it destroys the ability to get value for money in a procurement is just fatuous...as if there were no competition and this was an old-fashioned MoD contract to a single monompoly supplier.

The suppliers sensibly call for establishment of a Board of Key Stakeholders. Neat idea - but does that just mean Intellect and the IPS again? Another forum where suppliers nod wisely (what else can they do when it’s their job to try to win the contract) then go outside for a fag and ask each other questions like “What planet are these people on?” Or a real Board involving the real breadth of stakeholders, which inevitably means critical friends such as NGOs specialising in the needs of fringe and minority groups or focussed on human rights? If there are no credible voices for a range of customers on this Board then it is a waste of space.

Suppliers argue that the Board would need “a full understanding of the political and business aims of the Scheme” (indeed, we all need that) and that communication of clear business objectives to other government departments via a strategyc plan would be important. Well, it would be a start, but how about communication “with” instead of “to”? And how about communication with the whole breadth of stakeholders, including critical friends (who may not have all the answers, but are expert at articulating the key questions)?

Privacy concerns are important and will be fully considered as part of the design and operation of any Scheme

says the IPS. Indeed, and pigs with ID cards will be able to fly, farting freedom and excreting freshly printed banknotes over ecstatic UK taxpyers as they go. 
 
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