The Andersen Tapes

[Richard <nospam [at] sheflug.co.uk>]

Hello

I thought  that the following would be a good read for those of us who
pay small amounts of tax or lots of it ?  The Computing IT Newspaper
fell in through the door today and there's a story on the front page
about how the Civil Service is paying millions of pounds to Microsoft
and Andersen consulting to take it for a ride (in a big way).  For
more info about Computing see.....

http://www.thebusiness.vnunet.com

On the front page there is a picture of Dawn Primarilo and next to her
picture are the words "Co-operating with Andersen is more important
than securing compensation payments, admits the Treasury".   The
headline says "WHITEHALL LETS ANDERSEN OFF REPAYMENTS".  The story is
as follows......

"The Treasury has abandoned hopes of recovering millions of pounds in
compensation for delays in the new national insurance system because
it needs to preserve the relationship with the systems developer [rip
off merchants], Andersen Consulting. [where to get a dodgy woman in
three seconds ? ]

In a decision which illustrates the huge potential for outsourcer
'lock-in', paymaster general Dawn Primarilo said that the concession
[back hander] is required because Andersen's co-operation [more back
handers] 'is essential to the delivery of future changes to the
system'.  'I am satisfied taking action would prejudice the
partnership relationship now established between it and the Inland
Revenue', she told MPs last week. 

In effect Government plans for major reforms to the national
insurance, pensions and welfare systems are now dependant on
Andersen's good will" [ more back handers ?]

Written by Simon Goodley

It does go on for a few more paragraphs but that's more or less the
meat of it.  At page 4 there is a picture that looks strongly like the
sort of snap that you see of American gangsters enjoying themselves in
their own club before the FBI turn up.  Sort of Johnny and Reb
celebrate the next deal ?  It says..

"Andersen Consulting is re-badging itself as an e-commerce services
company to remain competitive against more focussed rivals in the
lucrative ebusiness market, writes Steve Ranger."

Over the past twenty years I have been involved with the ICL scandal
(1970s), the IBM fiasco through British Steel PLC and Nimrod MkIII at
a personal level whilst wearing RAF uniform.  To my way of thinking
and because of my own experiences with similar projects in the past I
can only come to the conclusion that this is a re-run of the same
thing with different players.

Why are we throwing money away on MS Windows software when Linux can
be used on the desktop instead and at a fraction of the cost ?

Thanks

-- 
Richard
Sheffield UK

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