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Union responds to MoD data loss

13 Oct 2008 04:12 PM

Responding to the loss of Ministry of Defence (MoD) data, PCS warned that EDS was on the verge of chaos as it sought to cut jobs and urged the MoD to review its outsourced Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) contract with EDS.

The news of the data loss comes two days after Hewlett Packard (HP) and the newly merged EDS, announced that they would cut its UK workforce by 3,378 posts over the next two years.

That announcement led the union to warn that the delivery of public services could be affected due to the job cuts.

The union believes that the data was being used in work related to the DII contract which the MoD awarded to EDS in March 2005.

Service delivery targets have been consistently missed with cost overruns of over £2 billion on the contract.

This latest data loss follows the loss of two disks a couple weeks ago at RAF Innsworth.

Commenting, PCS senior national officer for EDS, Graham Steel, said: “The data loss combined with job cuts plucked out of thin air put EDS on the verge of chaos and risk the delivery of vital public service contracts.

"Our members in EDS do a good job. Their hard work on public sector contracts risks being undermined by arbitrary job cuts which are being imposed on the UK from America by EDS’s newly merged partner.”

Commenting, Paul Barnsley, PCS national officer for the MoD, added: “This contract has been dogged with controversy from the failure to meet service delivery targets, to massive cost overruns.

"This data loss illustrates the urgent need for the government to review the delivery of this contract with a view to bringing it back in-house.

 

"This data loss illustrates the urgent need for the government to review the delivery of this contract with a view to bringing it back in-house.

"The government have no money to waste in these uncertain economic times and should stop wasting money on this controversial contact.”