MoD Compliance with HMG Policy on Procurement Process for IT Projects over £1m

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Existing UK HMG policy states that Open Source software should be
considered along with proprietary software for IT procurement.

The policy was strengthen in 2009 to state that IT suppliers must
show they have considered open source, and where it is not
selected, to explain why.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/25...

Page 21 of the Coalition Agreement also confirms commitment to open
source software:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/40...

Given the current tightening of budgets it is imperative that all
Departments follow this policy.

Please can you state, for IT procurements currently in progress
today (31/07/2010) where the IT spend is likely to be over £1
million, where the above policy on Open Source has been applied,
and where it hasn't.

In your response, please list each of these £1m+ projects and their
purpose.

Yours faithfully,

Charles Taylor

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please note that the FOIA request referred to at
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/mo...
has not been responded to by the legal deadline of 31 August 2010.

Please expedite a response, and note that your timeliness and
response will be discussed publicly.

Yours faithfully,

Charles Taylor

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Ministry of Defence's
handling of my FOI request 'MoD Compliance with HMG Policy on
Procurement Process for IT Projects over £1m'.

The response did not answer the very clear and specific request for
information. The original request makes clear that IT suppliers
(outsourced IT, systems integrators, preferred suppliers, lead
suppliers) MUST evaluate open source options and SHOW why they have
been discounted, citing 2 policy sources.

Therefore your response is flawed in stating that MoD is not
involved in the selection process for technology components. In the
same way that you assure the security risks of solutions proposed
by your IT suppliers, you are required to assure your supplier's
decision making for or against the use of open source. The original
request pointed to 2 policy documents confirming this.

If it is indeed that case that for MoD, suppliers are NOT mandated
to evaluate open source and show why it has not been selected, then
please confirm that for all IT projects over £1m MoD is NOT
compliant with existing UK HMG policy on open source. This
confirmation will be promoted and discussed publicly.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/mo...

Yours faithfully,

Charles Taylor

Dear Ministry of Defence,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of
Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of Ministry of Defence's
handling of my FOI request 'MoD Compliance with HMG Policy on
Procurement Process for IT Projects over £1m'.

You state that the reason for not providing the information
requested is because the information is not held centrally but
because it is held at project level. This is not the case because
(1) you have overarching IT governance and oversight to ensure that
all IT projects are aligned to strategy and therefore don't operate
as isolated silos unaccountable to the wider MoD and HMG IT
strategy, and (2) all IT project information is easily accessible
from corporate repositories. It would be alarming to suggest that
such corporate information was not easily accessible for many
reasons including security.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is
available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/mo...

Yours faithfully,

Charles Taylor