Corporation launches IT probe and suspends consultant

A Housing Corporation IT consultant was suspended last week following complaints to the government about the quango’s controversial IT outsourcing project.

The consultant was suspended on 8 July.

In a statement the Housing Corporation said: “Anonymous allegations have been made against a contractor who has had to be suspended. The contractor is very much considered to be innocent unless proven otherwise but we had no choice but to take the precautionary step of suspension while the investigation is carried out.

“The ASP [IT] project continues to be implemented without disruption.”

The quango also began an investigation on 8 July after a whistleblower went to the ODPM making allegations about the management of the corporation’s outsourcing project.

It has not confirmed or denied that the whistleblower’s complaint involved the consultant, who was a member of the team working on the IT project.

The IT project has been dogged by delays and leaked documents. Details of cost variations between bids for the project were leaked to a computer magazine and a private detective was called in to find the source of this leak (HT 28 February 2003, page 9).

The corporation’s chief executive, Jon Rouse, has pledged to sort out the issues.

In a statement to staff, Rouse said: “We are are launching a full investigation led by Mark Ripley, head of internal audit with the ODPM, to whom the allegations were made.

“I absolutely respect the right to make allegations, though it saddens me there was no attempt to contact me first.”

In a memo to staff, IT director Peter Ford said: “The investigations will be thorough to try to establish whether there is substance to the accusation.

“It’s hard to state how long this will take as it’s dependent on what’s found.”

The corporation’s trade unions Amicus and Unison said they would like to see an independent investigation rather than the internal inquiry currently taking place.