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UK Taxpayers' Money Getting Wasted On IT Spending

Posted by timothy on from the dog-bites-man-over-and-over-and-over dept.

hypnosec writes "A report combined by MPs has claimed the UK government is spending 'obscene' amounts of taxpayers' money on IT. The Public Administration Select Committee revealed in its report that some government departments have spent £3,500 on a single desktop PC, which can be purchased for as little as £200. Some other examples of the government pouring public money down the drain include buying copier paper for £73 when it can be purchased for £8."

3 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. That £3500 PC by LilBlackKittie · · Score: 3, Informative

    About that £3500 PC...

    The media reporting this story appear to be doing a good job of ignoring what that £3500 PC actually is: three years of PC, with software licensing, hardware replacement, upgrades, maintenance and support. It's not just the bare metal put on someone's desk but the full service behind it.

    If you take the IT budget for a large healthcare public sector organisation and divide it by the number of desktop PCs they support, it'll probably come out at around £1000/year.

  2. Re:Ohh, shiny! by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I doubt it. Apple is not on the list of approved suppliers for most UK government departments. In a lot Dell is the only option, and their government price list is insane: at least double their web price for exactly the same equipment. Even if this includes a support contract, it would still be cheaper to buy the cheap version and just throw it in the bin and buy a new one if there's a problem. Spending £3500 on an Apple desktop would mean a 12-core 2.66GHz Xeon - I'm pretty sure you can't get that for £200 elsewhere, since it has two CPUs that retail for over £500 each (although the rest of the specs on that machine are pretty anaemic for the price: only 6GB of RAM and a single 1TB disk? WTF Apple?)

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  3. Re:Ohh, shiny! by gilleain · · Score: 4, Informative
    Ah. As others have pointed out, the PC Pro article says :

    However, as our report from the 13 May states: “The bottom line might make it look like Cabinet Office workers are all sitting in front of the most ridiculously expensive machines in Britain, but officials played down the figures, saying they covered more than just the hardware. According to a Cabinet Office spokesperson, the “costs cover the core infrastructure and applications – basically anything supplied by a third party’.”

    (Read more: “Obscene” Whitehall IT spending or sloppy journalism? | PC Pro blog http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2011/07/28/obscene-whitehall-it-spending-or-sloppy-journalism/#ixzz1TUbtZD9C)