The British Education and Communications Agency (Becta), tasked by the government with organising IT in schools, has dismissed an independent report claiming that over £200m of government funds have been wasted under its watch.
The report by Sirius, an open source consultant, accuses Becta of not properly monitoring e-Learning Credits (eLCs), funds available to schools to buy software from an approved list of titles and suppliers.
Of the £300m allocated through eLCs to date, Sirius estimates that two-thirds cannot be accounted for.
Lack of transparency and lax overseeing by Becta has meant that ICT provision is in the hands of a small number of large suppliers, the report concludes.
"Becta appears to operate a closed shop of ICT vendors which is limiting innovation in schools," said John Spencer, an author of the report and head of education at Sirius.
Becta officials have strongly denied the accusations and, at the time of posting this article, were in the process of drafting a full response to the Sirius report.
Becta dismisses accusations of wasted millions
By
Andrew Charlesworth
on
Dec 20, 2006 9:29AM
The British Education and Communications Agency (Becta), tasked by the government with organising IT in schools, has dismissed an independent report claiming that over £200m of government funds have been wasted under its watch.
Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Partner Content
Promoted Content
Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Promoted Content
Security "mindset shift" needed to protect organisations
Promoted Content
Alienated from your own data? You’re not alone
Promoted Content
Don't miss Australia’s premiere IoT Conference on 9th June
Sponsored Whitepapers
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Don’t pay the ransom: A three-step guide to ransomware protection
