Infosys enjoyed a boom in UK government invoices in 2023
- Reference: 1707828452
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/02/13/infosys_uk_government_contracts/
- Source link:
The Indian company, founded by the current British prime minister's father-in-law, has come under scrutiny as research from Tussell showed it billed £7 million ($8.87 million) in 2023, up from £4.7 million ($5.96 million) the previous year. The figure was higher in 2020 (£6.1 million / $7.73 million) and then dropped off.
In response to the report, the Cabinet Office has said all contracts are awarded following an open and fair process, and decisions are "rigorously scrutinized."
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"Ministers do not take part in the evaluation or selection of winning bidders," the statement said.
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Nonetheless, the association adds to the impression that the prime minister's family live in a world different from the rest of the UK population as he is expected to face a general election this year with his Conservative Party massively behind in opinion polls.
[4]Infosys subsidiary named as source of Bank of America data leak
[5]Working from home never looked better: Leopard stalks around Infosys and TCS campuses
[6]Infosys co-founder doubles down on call for 70-hour work weeks
[7]Infosys loses ten-year, $1.5 billion contract announced just three months ago
Akshata Murty married Rishi Sunak, the investment banker turned political leader, in 2009. She is the daughter of N R Narayana Murthy, one of the seven co-founders of Infosys whose estimated personal wealth is around $4.1 billion. Akshata Murty holds a 0.93 percent stake in Infosys. The Sunday Times Rich List 2023 put her personal wealth at £529 million ($645 million) – a combination of her Infosys holdings and investments in other assets – making her and Sunak the 275th richest people in Britain, a nation of 67.33 million people.
Infosys has succeeded in notable UK public sector contract wins in the last few years.
These include a place, along with 27 other companies, on the NHS Shared Business Services' £250 million ($216 million) "Intelligent Automation" framework, and one of 62 that won a place on the Financial Conduct Authority's £563 million ($713 million) "Digital Services Framework Agreement."
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It is also on a [9]framework worth up to £30 million ($38 million) awarded by DWR Cymru Cyfyngedig, also known as Welsh Water. ®
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/13/infosys_bank_of_america_leak/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/17/leopard_infosys_tcs_india/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/15/narayana_murthy_long_work_comments/
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[9] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/036870-2023
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Humour
In response to the report, the Cabinet Office has said all contracts are awarded following an open and fair process, and decisions are "rigorously scrutinized."
LOL
Fishy Rishi ROI
Thou shalt have a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shalt have a fishy when the boat comes in.
Re: Fishy Rishi ROI
I'm hearing that sung by Rachel Unthank accompanied by a concertina and washboard.
As my Dad used to tell the trawler skipper once he had sorted their Decca, radar and VHF (and after I had cleaned the seagull crap off the 500kHz long wire insulators) 'It'll be alright when you get to sea Captain'.
Ethics & Conflict of Interest Training
Look, I'm sure those involved have all participated in the mandatory training. So there is no chance of any wrong-doing or perception of wrong-doing. Right?
Re: Ethics & Conflict of Interest Training
Yes, exactly. Just look at Post Office. There is no way hundreds of people would look the other way and wave it through. No way.
Re: Ethics & Conflict of Interest Training
Look, I'm sure those involved have all participated in the mandatory training. So there is no chance of any wrong-doing or perception of wrong-doing. Right?
There is a very, very, very slim chance it could actually be beneficial in a "Do not embarass the family business" kind of way. But then again, just look at C*apita. I was once told that a huge problem with government contracting is each contract bid has to stand or fall on it's own merits. Apparently past performance can't be taken into consideration because that would be 'unfair'.
I can't argue against a big company being one of many on a framework for competitive tendering - if it wasn't there you could ask why.
The question, which hasn't been answered, is whether any contracts awarded have *not* be awarded in the economic and professional interest of the taxpayer. If that was to be shown there would be a massive issue to answer for (which they wouldn't do but that's another issue). Otherwise, every politician seemingly has a snout in a trough somewhere ... It's only when the pigman gives them extra feed or obstructs access to the trough that it becomes a problem ...
You cannot look at this without the lens of Sunak's IR35 (albeit he has not introduced it in public sector, but he has not scrapped it either). Infosys also competes for contracts open to SMEs for bidding, which IR35 has greatly decreased competitiveness of.
Bear in mind that companies like Infosys are exempt from IR35.
Basically Sunak's government virtually denies a subset of companies ability to actually run business, and also bid for those contracts.
Company that falls in scope of these rules becomes taxed on revenue and automatically becomes less competitive and cannot deduct any business costs from the tax.
It is interesting that even CMA has slept on it. Not to mention other public bodies that are supposed to look into conflicts of interests and potential corruption.
How would define what is in the interest of the tax payer? Is it longer term gains and benefits or short term costs & savings ?
The classic example being our aircraft carriers, a 2bn cost change was nixed by MoD civil servants because the short term cost made it seem they'd lost control on budgets, yet the long term benefit, none of which the decision makers would be around to get reward from, would have costed in and been much better for the taxpayer.
Fwiw my impression is Infosys have cornered the market in terms of offering the right balance between skills & costs, so you actually get value out of engaging with them as subcontractors, rather than their rivals like Accenture, expensive, or TCS, constant churn of staff.
So they win contracts because they seem to know what they're doing and the offer is decent, not because of who they know.
Fwiw my impression is Infosys have cornered the market in terms of offering the right balance between skills & costs, so you actually get value out of engaging with them as subcontractors, rather than their rivals like Accenture, expensive, or TCS, constant churn of staff.
Presumably not without the help of Home Office that gives out skilled worker and intra company visas - at below market rates.
This: In response to the report, the Cabinet Office has said all contracts are awarded following an open and fair process, and decisions are "rigorously scrutinized."
Let me not quote Mandy Rice-Davies for you.