HMRC IT overhaul could wreak 'havoc'

Government has 'little confidence' that department can move from long-running IT contract Aspire effectively

HMRC is "overly complacent" about imminent and major changes to the way it procures IT, according to a government committee, which said failure to ensure a smooth transition would "create havoc" with public finances.

HMRC currently spends 84 per cent of its IT budget through the long-running Aspire contract with Capgemini, Fujitsu and Accenture. IT was first signed in 2004 and was extended in 2007 for a further three years to 2017. In that time, the government made big changes to IT procurement and ruled that mega contracts such as Aspire should be scrapped in favour of a series of smaller deals in order to help SMBs win business.

In a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report filed yesterday, south Norfolk MP Richard Bacon said HMRC was ill prepared for the upcoming changes.

"HMRC faces an enormous challenge in moving to a new contracting model by 2017, with many short-duration contracts with multiple suppliers, and appears complacent given the scale of the transformation required," he said.

"Moreover, HMRC's record in managing IT contractors gives us little confidence that HMRC can successfully achieve this transition or that it can manage the proposed model effectively to maximise value for money.

"The Aspire contract has provided stable systems to support the collection of taxes. The provision of all government services depends on the continued stability of tax collection, which yielded more than £500bn in the last completed financial year and, on the same trend, would be expected to yield around £5tn over the next 10 years. There are substantial risks to tax collection if the transition fails, which would create havoc with the public finances."