HMRC WLTM partner, GSOH, to help it escape the Aspire black hole

HMRC is seeking a £20m private sector partner to provide "strategic-level experience" to manage its exit from the £10.4bn Aspire mega IT deal currently underpinning Blighty's entire tax system. The tender issued this week said the partner will "help manage the exit from a large-scale outsourced arrangement that has been in …

[JimmyPage]

Do I remember correctly

last time they were forced to pay firms to bid, because everyone knew the tender would go back to the incumbent, and weren't willing to waste money on a tender ?

If so, I'll start to put my bid in. I reckon I could come up with a figure for £50,000. Although with such low aspirations I'm unlikely to get it. Probably more likely if I asked £500,000

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Do I remember correctly

Indeed they were paid, and even then some of the firms you would perhaps consider to be amongst the most honest (for want of a better word) declined to bid because they knew it was a disaster waiting to happen.

[Anonymous Coward]

HMRC IT

I work for HMRC. It's astonishing that we spend so much money on IT and get an infrastructure that's, to be frank, piss-poor. The Aspire contract is a shameful money pit. The tech illiterate senior civil servant who negotiated it and signed it are halfwits.

[Chris Evans]

Just until 2017!

Shouldn't the contract cover at least the first year AFTER migration so that they can be held accountable for their plans!

There just might be a few teething problems...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just until 2017!

And that's not allowing for any delays in completing the exit and covering any additional interim contracts

[Anonymous Coward]

Totally predictable

I worked at HMRC, first for EDS on Eagle and then for Crap Gemini on Aspire.

You would have thought it self evident there would be problems in moving from a model where one supplier took responsibility for everything (EDS) and you paid for what you ate (time and materials) to a model where two companies effectively split responsibility (Crap Gemini and the pirates at Fujitsu) and it's all fixed cost and therefore you pay through the nose for any and every change and when you, HMRC, completely lack the skills, because you outsourced them, to actually manage your suppliers!