Information Technology

Tories promise to break up big gov’t IT contracts

(ZD NET UK) - A Conservative government will use open standards to break up large government IT contracts into modular components, according to the party’s pre-election technology manifesto.

In the manifesto, published on Thursday, the party said the breaking up of large contracts into interoperable modules would reduce risk and let smaller businesses bid for government IT contracts. It also said the use of open standards would “create a level playing field for open-source IT”.

“To ensure that high-tech small businesses are not locked out of the IT procurement process, a Conservative government will also introduce a presumption against government IT contracts worth over £100m,” the Tories said in the manifesto. “These policies will not only save costs, but will also help to catalyse the growth of the next generation of high-tech British IT companies.”

The Tories have been promoting the idea of a decentralised approach to government IT for the last two years. In April 2008, party leader David Cameron blogged that the use of open standards and modular contracts would “follow private-sector best practice”.

According to the manifesto, the Tories will to institute a moratorium on all planned government IT procurement projects to make sure small businesses and open-source providers are not shut out of the process.

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