The Crown Business Service’s (CCS) resolution to extend its cloud internet hosting spend with Amazon Net Providers (AWS) mid-contract by 89% is below scrutiny from procurement professionals.
The federal government’s procurement arm is overseeing the migration of workloads from the Authorities Digital Service’s now defunct Gov.uk platform-as-a-service (PaaS) providing to the AWS cloud.
This piece of labor is roofed by a £1.3m, 36-month contract CCS organized with the general public cloud large in February 2023 by way of the G-Cloud 13 framework.
It has since emerged that CCS issued a Change Management Discover (CCN) that confirms the contract worth elevated by 89% to £2.5m in Could 2024, regardless of deal worth will increase of that measurement not being strictly permitted below procurement guidelines.
“Following the migration…to AWS, there’s a want to extend the contract worth of the CCS Internet hosting contract up to now for the elevated prices incurred for these migrated providers,” the CCN discover acknowledged.
Below the phrases of Regulation 72 of the Public Contracts Laws 2015 (PCR15), contracts “could also be modified with no new procurement process…offered that any improve in value doesn’t exceed 50% of the worth of the unique contract”.
On this foundation, CCS is now being known as on to clarify why this contract was not retendered or topic to additional competitors, as soon as it realised the unique AWS contract wouldn’t cowl the full price of the work concerned.
“The contract was awarded below G-Cloud 13, and is clearly ruled by PCR15. There’s no argument with that,” stated one public sector IT procurement skilled, who spoke to Laptop Weekly on situation of anonymity.
“However the CCS has not offered a believable clarification for the uplift in contract worth following the CCN, which clearly places it within the threshold that requires additional competitors.”
Public procurement adviser Martin Medforth instructed Laptop Weekly that Regulation 72 of PCR15 does allow public sector IT patrons to extend the unique worth of their contracts by greater than 50% – simply not multi function go.
“Regulation 72 is a humorous one, in that it may be utilized a number of occasions,” he stated. “So, you may apply the 50% after which, if [the buyer] realises they nonetheless have a bit of labor to do, they’ll apply the 50% once more.”
It isn’t clear from the CCN discover if CCS did train its proper to extend the dimensions of its AWS deal a number of occasions, or if the 89% improve was pushed by way of regardless.
Laptop Weekly contacted CCS to question the change in deal measurement and what its response can be to claims the contract change is misaligned with the contents of PCR15.
In response to the request, a CCS spokesperson acknowledged: “Crown Business Service follows procurement laws, below the Public Contracts Laws 2015, which ensures that every one authorities contracts are awarded pretty and transparently. This contract was awarded utilizing the G-Cloud 13 framework settlement.”
Nicky Stewart, senior adviser to the Open Cloud Coalition (OCC), which champions competitors throughout the public cloud market, instructed Laptop Weekly that it will be important that high-profile, public sector organisations corresponding to CCS display good follow when procuring cloud providers.
“The OCC absolutely helps open and clear procurement rules in terms of cloud,” stated Stewart. “This consists of making respectable alternative accessible to all, together with challenger cloud suppliers, and we hope that high-profile shopping for authorities such because the CCS will present management on this respect.”
Questioning the unique deal measurement
The very fact the deal measurement has required such a sizeable uplift after 15 months or so of labor suggests CCS underestimated how a lot the migration would price, continued Medforth. “Had I personally finished this deal, I might have most likely let this for ‘as much as £5m’, to be on the secure aspect,” he stated.
That could be a sentiment shared by Owen Sayers, an enterprise architect with greater than 20 years’ expertise in delivering nationwide policing techniques, who instructed Laptop Weekly that questions must be requested about how CCS obtained its “sums so fallacious” within the first occasion the place this contract is anxious.
“Having to nearly double a £1.3m, three-year contract simply over a 3rd of the best way into its lifecycle means that the unique due diligence and understanding of the requirement was considerably missing,” he stated.
Laptop Weekly additionally contacted AWS for touch upon this story, however the firm declined.
