Gateway Reviews: Show us the results, say suppliers

IT suppliers are backing calls for the government to share the results of Gateway Reviews on the progress of public sector IT projects.

This follows the publication of a report by Whitehall watchdog the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week saying government departments aren't taking the checks seriously enough.

The Gateway Review process was developed by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to provide better scrutiny of IT projects and reduce the number of high-profile and costly government IT failures.

But PAC found departments are missing key stages of the Gateway checks and called for more external scrutiny.

IT supplier trade body Intellect said it supports the findings of the PAC report but said significant issues remain in the path of successful IT-enabled project delivery.

Nick Kalisperas, director of public sector at Intellect, said in a statement: "In our view the first step must be the sharing of Gateway Review reports with suppliers, and following this OGC must prioritise the embedding of the process across all government departments."

Kalisperas said the IT industry has introduced initiatives such as the supplier best practice code for government contracts and that it is now the responsibility of the public sector to adopt and embed these processes and initiatives.