Torfaen IT procurement saga takes new twist

Freedom of Information request reveals £786,000 of publicly funded wireless networking kit is gathering dust in Wales

A South Wales IT procurement row has reignited today after Torfaen County Borough Council admitted that a further £786,000 worth of publicly funded kit is sitting in storage.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request response, received by ChannelWeb today, shows that almost £800,000 of wireless networking kit remains unused following its procurement in May 2011.

Newport Council maintains that it never formally signed up to the iLearn Wales digital learning project, which was designed to provide Key Stage Four pupils with better technology in schools, and argues it is not to blame for the waste.

But Torfaen Council claims the extra wireless kit was procured for Newport before it officially withdrew from the project on 30 June 2011 in a letter from its corporate directors.

Last October, ChannelWeb broke the news that 2,400 laptops worth £1m of public money are gathering dust in storage. They too were intended for Newport Council under the joint procurement process between Torfaen and Monmouthshire Councils.

At the time, council officials claimed that, to the best of their knowledge, no more equipment was surplus following the confusion surrounding Newport Council's role in the framework, but the FOI request response revealed details of the additional surplus wireless kit.

Wireless access points, network switches and firewalls worth £786,000 were purchased at the same time as the laptops, according to Torfaen, which claimed that "like the laptops, the wireless kit is being held securely in storage pending a decision by Welsh government upon their future use".

Both the laptops and wireless kit were procured with Welsh government money as part of the iLearn Wales project, and talks over the equipment's future are ongoing between the government and both Torfaen and Monmouthshire Councils.

A Torfaen spokesman told ChannelWeb that a decision on the equipment's fate is "imminent" but the Welsh government just reiterated its stance and said it "has been working closely with Torfaen and Monmouthshire County Council to ensure that public funds are being used appropriately".

Neither Newport or Torfaen Council could tell ChannelWeb if any more equipment has been left unused, but a Torfaen spokesman said today he was "pretty certain" that there was nothing else intended for Newport which is not in use.

An anonymous channel source said he was not convinced that this was the end of the procurement scandal.

"Where does all of this end?" he said. "There was no mention of this [wireless equipment] to date, so you have to wonder if there is more."

Armand Watts, a county councillor for Monmouthshire, said secrecy continues to surround the procurement process.

"Yet again, we have not been given this information freely and we have had to find it out ourselves. It is really frustrating and continues to worry me, especially the secrecy around this whole thing," he added.

"We have a right to know and have our questions answered. We only ask [the questions] because they are in the public interest because it is public money."

Torfaen's deputy chief executive Peter Durkin told ChannelWeb that Newport Council had not entered into a legally binding contract regarding the iLearn Wales scheme, but that this is common practice as verbal agreements and minuted meetings suffice.

He added that Torfaen will continue to procure in this way in future, and is not looking to change its process to include contracts.

He said: "Where there is a good governance standard applied, like there was on this occasion and every other, the public can have every confidence that public funds are well spent."