BT ringing in £24m a year from 'scandalous' council IT contract

A MULTI-million pound deal between BT and the city council was today branded "scandalous" after it emerged that up to £13 is charged to "press a button" and reboot a school computer.

The confidential contract, leaked to the Evening News, also shows that changing a desktop password can cost 17, and the labour charge for installing a simple software package rises to 108.

One worker today described the set-up as "mad", while IT experts blasted both the high prices and the length of time it can take for work to be done – such as a possible five-day wait to fix "loose cabling" at a cost of 13.

Opposition politicians called for an urgent review, amid fears that taxpayers are losing out. The council pays BT around 24 million a year for IT services, with the contract in place until 2016.

Both organisations today said independent analysis proves the deal is "value for money".

But one support worker, who was contracted to work on council projects, said: "If you tell the person on the phone to reboot his or her PC, it is 13 – just to press the button. Mad."

IT expert Ally Hollins-Kirk, operations manager at Onestop IT Solutions in Hardengreen, Eskbank, said a five-day turnaround for some jobs is "ridiculous".

"Our clients would be expecting a four-hour response," he said.

"To charge 108 (for installing software] – pressing two or three buttons – seems to be expensive.

"Purchasing and installing a PC has a 180 labour charge – that's just a matter of plugging it in. The upgrades for RAM are also particularly expensive – that takes five minutes.

"This may be the market price (for councils], but we would certainly offer them a better deal."

The council pre-pays an undisclosed sum to BT, which it receives a discount rate for.

Work on top of that is charged at the figures released to the Evening News, which combine to reach the average 24m annual pay-out.

Tory councillor Jason Rust said: "This sounds totally scandalous and disproportionate.

"It will be a bitter pill to swallow for social and community projects that are being forced to reign in their budgets. Clearly, this needs to be reviewed as a matter of urgency."

The council today said there are hidden costs that explain some of the higher charges, such as the need to place orders, update equipment registers and send invoices.

A "benchmark" exercise was carried out in autumn last year by consultancy firm Equaterra, which found the service to represent "fair value for money", with costs "close to average".

A council spokesman said: "Within any contract, some individual items will be more or less expensive than average. But, overall, the external reports show that we're getting value for money."

A BT Scotland spokesman added: "BT's services to the council have just been independently benchmarked and were demonstrated to deliver value for money in a competitive market place."