BCGEU questions more government outsourcing to multinationals

The Campbell government is poised to sign a major contract with EDS Advanced Solutions, a Canadian subsidiary of global IT firm HP-EDS, to take over the operation and maintenance of the mainframe computer servers that contain all provincial government documents and e-mails.

The latest in a series of major long-term data -management contracts by the provincial government is scheduled for January 2009 despite questions about the practice of outsourcing and the government's capacity to oversee contracts.

"An April 2008 audit report by B.C.'s Auditor General questioned the capacity of the government to carry out proper cost benefit analysis on contracting out of data management," said Darryl Walker.

Walker also pointed out that sensitive government records will now be accessible to multinational corporations. "Everything from youth justice data, to Treasury Board submissions and other cabinet documents as well as contract information," said Walker. " If government is dissatisfied with the contactor, any communication on that subject would also be accessible to the corporation."

HP-EDS at the international level has had repeated difficulties keeping information confidential.

Over the past year, HP-EDS Britain lost a UK Ministry of Defence hard drive containing the personnel data of over 100,000 armed-forces workers. The company lost a hard drive with the personal details of over 5,000 British prison officers, and was at the centre of a scandal in which personal information on 25 million British citizens who receive child benefit cheques went missing.

Previously, the British subsidiary botched a tax credit contract with UK Revenue and Customs, and was finally forced to pay the equivalent of more than $129 million CAD to the British government in legal settlements. A government plan to implement a national ID card has also been put on hold, due to concerns over contractors' cost overruns and breaches of privacy.

Privacy issues are important because the US Patriot Act allows the FBI to access personal information from US-based companies, without citizens' knowledge. In 2007, a US Justice Department investigation revealed a sharp increase in the number of FBI information requests under the Patriot Act. Between 2003 and 2005, the FBI issued 143,000 national security letters compelling release of citizens' information, including electronic records. The investigation turned up 1,000 cases of abuse, including failure to get proper authorization, making improper requests and unauthorized requests for data.

"This contract not only places citizens' personal information at risk of scrutiny, but also unnecessarily exposes every record produced by the government of British Columbia, " said Walker.

The current government hosting unit includes 115 full time positions. Recruitment is difficult and this contract seems to allow the provincial government to offload its recruitment and retention difficulties without regard to the risk of compromising its own privacy, said Walker.

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For more information, please contact Chris Bradshaw at 604-291-9611