DfT seeks new shared services centre deal

The Department for Transport intends to set up a new contract to run its shared services centre in Swansea. A pre-tender published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 15 March says the department estimates the contract will be worth between £150m and £500m over 10 years. The current shared services centre, which has about 15,000 users, has been criticised for costing the taxpayer more than £80m instead of saving millions of pounds. Parliament's public accounts committee said the troubled project had been mismanaged because the department did not hold a competitive tender before launching the scheme, did not make its requirements clear and did not allocate enough time for development. The department has said the centre has undergone continuous reviews since its inception to deal with problems including poor financial control and management reporting functions. The Department for Transport expects to launch a new tendering process in June. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.