The Register reports that IT reseller Computacenter has brokered an Enterprise Agreement (EA) between Microsoft and HMRC valued at roughly £10M. The agreement entitles HMRC to volume discounts on Redmond gear, upgrades and more over the next three years.
It is understood Computacenter will take a small cut for hooking up the two organisations; HMRC's last EA with Microsoft expired in 2008.
Ironically Microsoft were recently featured in the Sunday Times in an article on tax avoidance (which Cameron claims is morally repugnant):
"Microsoft is channelling online payments for sales of its new Windows 8 operating system to Luxembourg as part of a scheme that avoids UK corporation tax on more than £1.7bn a year of revenue.How ironic!
The Sunday Times has established that a small office in a Luxembourg business park with just six staff handles hundreds of millions of pounds from online Microsoft sales in the UK and the rest of Europe.
The bulk of the money is transferred to Microsoft’s European headquarters in Ireland. Profits can then be routed to Bermuda without UK corporation tax being paid."
Tax does have to be taxing.
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The whole concept of HMRC is similar to waking up from a deep sleep in a fog filled room.
ReplyDeleteEarlier today the Mail made a mockery of the Department and its boss Lin Homer over its appalling service (across the piste?).
Now we find it paying a broker FFS, in order to do what? Obtaining volume discounts! Bloody Hell m'lud, but if 90,000 multiple purchases aren't already getting discount WTF has been going on with procurement of anything in HMRC?
Does it source its coffee in Switzerland or buy it from Starburks, oh, sorry, its the same thing!
HMRC has a pathetic track record when it comes to contract negotiation, and BTW, was it not a requirement for expenditure of this amount to have been placed openly in the EU system?
'volume discount'? like the £8 HMRC pay for each of the cheap as chips Banner lever arch file we use?!
ReplyDeleteYou are joking I hope?
DeleteThese files can be bough online for less than half that price?
http://www.bsd-online.co.uk/bsd/banner-a4-polypropylene-lever-10.html
Ken
DeleteGiven that HMRC have less than 70,000 staff now and they are scheduled to lose a further 10,000 by 2015 why the hell do they need an Enterprise Agreement license for 90,000 desktops. That looks to be one third more than should be needed or are 50% of HMRC staff given more than one personal computer to use.
i'm afraid we are not fortunate enough to use colour polypropylene lever arch folders in HM's service; i'm talking of the black, cardboard ones that are such back quality you'd bet they were custom-made for HMRC. £8 each - no kidding.
Deletesend them an FOI request and see them cower behind commercial confidentiality :)
A lot of the people who work in my building use laptops which makes the 90,000 desktop figure look even more bizarre.
ReplyDeleteNow all we need is the right to use a web browser that can access 21 Century internet pages. The current one is so shit that you can't even access the Treasury site properly.
ReplyDeleteKen will you send in an FOI for the price of lever arch files? I'd like to see what they do! S
ReplyDeleteWhile you are at it, how about an FOI to obtain up to date sick absence stats. Don't foget, it's all on-line now so should be available almost real time.
ReplyDeleteThe Muppet Show moves inexorably from comedy to tragedy with an ever changing cast via the ever revolving stage door/exit stage right?