Read on Twitter
Exclusive:
The roll-out of the new contact tracing app is being fronted by staff from consultancy Accenture
It's been paid more than £850,000 for 10 weeks' work - not counting anything done this month https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-defends-use-of-consultancy-to-lead-roll-out-of-uks-new-contact-tracing-app-12053085
The roll-out of the new contact tracing app is being fronted by staff from consultancy Accenture
It's been paid more than £850,000 for 10 weeks' work - not counting anything done this month https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-defends-use-of-consultancy-to-lead-roll-out-of-uks-new-contact-tracing-app-12053085
Staff from Accenture are hosting meetings on the app and giving presentations on its functionality, to the unease of some within NHSX
"They are not what we need," a source told me, describing external meetings hosted by Accenture as "a real own goal" https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-defends-use-of-consultancy-to-lead-roll-out-of-uks-new-contact-tracing-app-12053085
"They are not what we need," a source told me, describing external meetings hosted by Accenture as "a real own goal" https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-government-defends-use-of-consultancy-to-lead-roll-out-of-uks-new-contact-tracing-app-12053085
There's been concern about the government's reliance on consultancies, following high-profile issues with Deloitte and lucrative contracts awarded to McKinsey - as @beckie__smith reported here https://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/mckinsey-banks-560000-consulting-on-vision-purpose-and-narrative-for-new-test-and-trace-body
Accenture has actually been working on the app since the beginning. It was awarded a contract of £560,587.20 on 14 April for "project management support"
Not everything with the management of that project was deemed a success - yet here they are
Not everything with the management of that project was deemed a success - yet here they are
A contract worth £308,679.06 was awarded to Accenture on 1 June. That was for a month's work
As far as I can see no new contracts have been published - yet just last week its staff were hosting meetings on the Isle of Wight
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/9e84084c-48ea-4ffb-9ee2-1b137c15e77c
As far as I can see no new contracts have been published - yet just last week its staff were hosting meetings on the Isle of Wight
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/9e84084c-48ea-4ffb-9ee2-1b137c15e77c
The Department of Health and Social Care defended the contracts. A spokesperson told me
There's a case to be made for and against outsourcing, but no-one could say our procurement system functions effectively
Roughly 500 years ago I wrote about what you could do if only you had better data on government contracts https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ukraine-revolution-government-procurement
Roughly 500 years ago I wrote about what you could do if only you had better data on government contracts https://www.wired.co.uk/article/ukraine-revolution-government-procurement
No-one will agree with me on this, but the craziest thing about this whole story is that the data was collected by a private company (and is almost certainly incomplete) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8646941/Government-paid-private-firms-6-5BILLION-COVID-crisis-services-struggled.html
