Government Should Come Clean On Computer Contracts - Hide

ACT Finance spokesman Rodney Hide said today that in the wake of the INCIS debacle the government should come clean on all the computer contracts it has entered into.

"The government is now saying that they can't say what computer contracts cost because of confidentiality agreements. These agreements would prevent the public ever knowing what projects like INCIS cost.

"IRD's new ir-File has had major problems. There have been outages, the server has been very slow and the contractor EDS has had to supply two extra servers as a back-up to the one that was supposed to do the job.

"But the crucial thing is that the Minister Responsible, Rt Hon Sir William Birch, steadfastly refuses to detail the cost to the taxpayer. This is a multi-million dollar contract without accountability. In answer to written questions, the Minister has simply said, "The costs of ir-File are subject to a confidentiality clause in the contract between Inland Revenue and EDS (New Zealand) Ltd".

"This isn't good enough. This is public money. The Minister should be telling us what ir-File is planned to cost - that way we can compare the planned cost with the final result. The government should not be able to dodge accountability so easily," said Rodney Hide.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>