NHS IT payments to BT to be investigated
Did National Programme for IT in NHS pay £400m over market prices?
By ComputerworldUK.com reporter
The National Audit Office, the government's audit watchdog, is to hold a rush investigation into whether BT was paid £400 million over the market price for work on Programme for IT in the health service (NPfIT).
The additional audit follows a request by Conservative MP Richard Bacon, a senior member of the Public Accounts Committee, Tony Collins reports in his blog.
A major concern for Bacon is a decision of the Department of Health to pay BT £546m for work which Bacon considers is worth no more than £150m. "I am still baffled as to how and why the Department ended up paying BT so much for taking over contracts from Fujitsu," he told Collins..
The Department of Health says its spending decisions wer supported by advice commissioned from a range of consultants following the termination of a £1 billion contract with Fujitsu in the south of England.
Bacon, however, questions whether the these consultants reported on the overall scheme.