"It was a key part of the contract with Accenture that they would pass everything back to us to run, so we are not contracting out. In fact, Friday (February 27) was the last involvement of Accenture. We have technology experts who, [when we] have one of these instances, we'll get to what's happened. We'll be able to work it out from the code. We can fix it."
"In my experience, when you get involved in writing bespoke software, particularly with people like Accenture, if you're not careful, you end up running up a very big downstream bill. Some government departments have become dependent on expertise from suppliers such that they have to extend contracts without competition, partly through a lack of internal knowledge."
The Bank of England completed its transition away from Accenture's support for the Real-Time Gross Settlement system, which processes £790 billion in daily transactions. Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden assured Parliament's Public Accounts Committee that the central bank possesses sufficient in-house skills and intellectual property to manage the bespoke software independently. The contract with Accenture specifically required knowledge transfer back to the Bank, preventing long-term vendor dependency. This contrasts with other government departments that have become locked into extended contracts with suppliers due to insufficient internal expertise. The Bank of England's approach demonstrates successful technology transition planning, enabling the institution to manage system issues, develop new features, and maintain operational control without ongoing external consultancy support.
#government-technology-transition #vendor-independence #rtgs-system #public-sector-procurement #in-house-capability
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