Re: "mutually agreed an out-of-court settlement"
It is utterly outrageous to try and pass this off as "value for money for the taxpayer".
Even more shameless than admitting that the stitched-up secret bidding process, which you hide from view with a spurious notion of "commercial confidentiality", was so badly tilted and incompetent that you're having to pay another 10 million to a company that you already pay billions to, just so they don't "make a fuss".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
