Government reviewing all Atos' major Whitehall contracts

Review comes after Atos' role in GPES contract was savaged by Public Accounts Committee

Atos' reputation as a UK public sector supplier has seemingly taken a knock as reports emerged that the government is reviewing all its major Whitehall contracts.

According to a report by The Guardian over the weekend, the Cabinet Office is taking the rare measure of re-examining every Whitehall contract worth more £10m operated by the French firm.

It comes after MPs criticised Atos' role in a project to develop GPES, an IT system designed to enable the extraction of data from GP practice systems.

A Public Accounts Committee (PAC) concluded in December that Atos "did not show an appropriate duty of care to the taxpayer" and urged the Cabinet Office to review Atos' relationship as a supplier to the Crown.

Projected costs for the IT system in question have spiralled from £14m to £40m.

According to analyst TechMarketView, Atos leapfrogged IBM to become the sixth-largest supplier of software and services to the UK public sector last year. Its revenues from the sector rose 18 per cent to £696m in 2014, according to the analyst.

Down the years, Atos has also faced questions over its role in other high-profile government contracts, most strikingly the controversial work capability assessments it carried out a couple of years. Atos stepped out of the contract a year early after the tests were labelled "inhumane".

A Cabinet Office representative confirmed to The Guardian that it had accepted the PAC's recommended review.

"In line with the PAC's recommendation the Cabinet Office is undertaking a review of all current Atos contracts with central government with an annual spend over £10m," they said.

An Atos representative said in a statement to CRN they welcomed the review but stressed that Atos is only responsible for one part of GPES.

"We look forward to working with the Cabinet Office with whom we have a transparent and open relationship and we look forward to maintaining our green rating for delivery across Whitehall," they said.

"Obviously we also have a Crown Representative through Cabinet Office who has access to all of our accounts on a regular basis and provide a lot of reporting to Cabinet Office on a regular basis as do all strategic suppliers to Government.

"On the GPES contract, we have been clear about the following - the most important point being that Atos is not responsible for GPES - only one part - and we did not have oversight of the full process."