Plano, Texas-based EDS and Capgemini have been reported as the remaining candidates for the 13-year contract, valued at approximately 650m pounds ($1.23bn). The MPS contract will consolidate the three existing deals it has in place with Atos Origin, Damovo, and EDS.
UK newspaper the Sunday Times said documents released under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the Office of Government Commerce had commissioned accountants Deloitte to investigate EDS in 2002 and in 2004, and had also twice conducted investigations into the company.
In November 2004, its relationship with the UK government’s Department for Work and Pensions suffered a huge blow after a huge IT system failure occurred affecting up to 80,000 desktops. In the same month, its 450m pound ($843m) IT services contract for the Child Support Agency was in the spotlight when the former CEO of the CSA, Doug Smith, told the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee that although the EDS IT project had not been a failure, he was seriously disappointed with the IT systems over the past 18 months, and said they had proved problematic and unstable.
In March 2004, EDS sued the UK government for over 10m pounds ($18.5m) after being kicked off a contract to provide the National Health Service with email and directory services.
In December 2003, EDS suffered another high-profile embarrassment with the UK government. The company was badly criticized for its role in the Inland Revenue IT contract, when it was blamed by MPs in the House of Commons for failures that resulted in thousands of UK households failing to receive money when the system went live in April 2003. EDS was then ousted from the contract at the time of renewal in December 2003, and replaced by Capgemini in a $5bn deal.
