Cost of IPSA's online expenses system

IPSA selected their ICT Systems provider following a structured procurement exercise run through OGC Buying Solutions. A number of specialist ICT providers bid for the work and were evaluated against pre-agreed criteria by a selection panel made-up of IPSA Directors and ICT staff working for IPSA. OGC maintained an oversight of the procurement.

A core deliverable from the ICT Supplier selected was the online expenses system for use by MPs and their staff. This was selected following due diligence by the ICT Supplier and by IPSA. A key requirement was that the solution to be implemented was technically proven in a wide array of end customer locations across the private and public sector. The online system needed to be capable of configuration to meet the requirements of the IPSA Expense Scheme and be industry strength in terms of usability. Similarly the solution needed to represent value for money to the public purse and allow secure data access and transmission by MPs. The final solution selected following demonstration and customer endorsement was expense@work.

You also requested information regarding the cost of the computer system. In IPSA’s view, the information you have requested is exempt under Section 22 of the FOIA (Information intended for future publication). IPSA will publish information on its expenditure, including the costs of the construction, maintenance and associated costs of the online expenses system in its forthcoming annual report, which is expected to be published in late July 2010.