Freesteel Blog » On the Becta case again

On the Becta case again

Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 4:34 pm Written by:

Me and my loud mouth. Someone is scheduling me to moderate some kind of panel discussion on 19th October about public procurement of IT. Oh dear. Better do a bit of homework. Last year I blogged about an FOI request I had got back from Becta about their framework agreements — a device for side-stepping EU procurement law.

Time for the follow-up.

To: Head of Internal Communications and Information Management (Becta)
Date: 7 September 2007

Sir,

According to your website[1] as well as a previous Freedom of Information request[2], I understand that Becta signed an “Infrastructure Services Framework Agreement” with 16 framework suppliers, including Northgate Information Solutions Ltd., in the summer of 2006.

Section 8.2 of the agreement[3] states that:

“The CONTRACTOR shall provide management information reports to BECTA for no charge on a quarterly basis… including the details specified in Schedule 7… The CONTRACTOR acknowledges that BECTA will publish such management information (whether via its website or otherwise) and consents to such publication.”

As I have unfortunately been unable to locate these quarterly management information reports from likely places on your website[4], I am requesting a copy of all such reports from Northgate Information Solutions, as well as any related documentation, such as Improvement Notices (outlined in section 8.4).

Many regards,

Julian Todd.

[1] http://news.becta.org.uk/display.cfm?resID=19098

[2] http://www.freesteel.co.uk/pdf/FOI_reply_Julian_Todd.pdf

[3] http://www.freesteel.co.uk/pdf/IS_Framework_SOT_combined_FINAL.pdf

[4] http://localauthorities.becta.org.uk/index.php?section=pf&catcode=ls_pict_04&rid=13167

Still no response back from the Information Commissioner about my FOI problems with Bristol. The deal was I had thought Bristol were buying their kit from Northgate using this Becta framework thing, but it appears that they have used an even dodgier mechanism involving a fake shell company known as a Partnership. Still, if their name shows up in Northgate’s management reports to Becta, then I’ll know that Bristol have been lying to me.

1 Comment

  • 1. Freesteel » Blog Ar&hellip replies at 11th September 2007, 4:03 pm :

    […] uest
    September 11th, 2007 by Julian

    A mere four days after I sent them the FOI request, I got a response. How’s that? When I was making requests […]

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