Despite its botched contract to upgrade the computer systems of the UK Home Office Immigration and Nationality Department (IND) in March (CI No 3,622), Siemens Business Services Ltd looks in line to win another large public sector project.
The German firm, the services division of Munich-based Siemens AG, is preferred bidder for a 100m pound ($164.5m) scheme to computerize the Ministry of Transport’s (MOT) databases. The database contains information on MOT tests conducted to ensure that vehicles over a certain age remain roadworthy. Siemens has gained the upper hand against rivals IBM and Capita, the UK services firm that derives most of its revenue from the public sector.
None of the mud appears to have stuck to Siemens, though it came under scrutiny last week from the National Audit Office, the public sector spending watchdog, who blamed it for the March IND project and revealed that it had avoided fines totaling 275,000 pounds ($452,000).
