HP has emerged as the largest ICT supplier to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), it was revealed today.
In 2009/10, HP was paid 806 million, according to Freedom of Information (FOI) data received by Kable, a UK ICT public sector research company.
The deals with HP Enterprise Services came from the company's involvement with the Atlas consortium which provides the MoD with the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) programme.
The project's aim was to provide MoD staff and 300,000 military personnel with a global secure IT environment. The estimated cost of the delayed project is 7.1 billion, which works out at 23,700 per user, Kable has calculated.
Last January, the Labour government extended the DII programme by 540 million but the new coalition has announced the project will come under scrutiny, along with many other public sector programmes, as part of its cost-cutting efforts.
HP was not the only company benefitting from the MoD's annual budget of 24.9 billion. BT received 276 million as a supplier of communications equipment and services. HP's main rival, IBM, invoiced the department for 52 million, less than a tenth of HP's bill.
Kable compiles individual lists of the top 100 suppliers to various government departments. So far, the amount paid to HP appeared to be the largest financial relationship between any department and an IT supplier in the last financial year.
The Department for Work and Pensions has already disclosed its top payment, also to HP, to be 657 million, while HM Revenue and Customs paid 765 million to a consortium, led by Capgemini, running the Aspire IT outsourcing programme. A few departments, including the Home Office, have yet to disclose their spending.
