Departmental ICT

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much was spent on the implementation of Quest for (a) additional fees to consultants and (b) staff overtime.

Mr. Ivan Lewis
The information is as follows.

(a) Several consultants worked on the Electronic Document and Records Management (EDRM) System project in addition to the main supplier contract. They provided expertise in project management, procurement, benefits management, knowledge and information management, training and support. The following table sets out the costs of additional consultants taken on during the project, in addition to the systems integrators (Logica) who delivered the system, provided some change management advice and training support and now continue to support the ongoing operations of Quest.

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|       |Consultancy costs|
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|2002-03|347,265          |
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|2003-04|194,982          |
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|2004-05|110,519          |
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|2005-06|1,189,000        |
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|2006-07|323,000          |
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|2007-08|346,000          |
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|Total  |2,510,766        |
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These costs include travel expenses for visits by consultants and trainers to the Department for International Development’s (DFID) offices in the UK and over 60 overseas offices.

(b) We do not hold figures for the cost of the small amount of DFID staff overtime during the project and providing them would incur disproportionate costs.