A range of ICT and enterprise software vendors could face government scrutiny over how they “cultivate” relationships with agency officials leading large technology projects.
A parliamentary audit committee report [pdf] examining the National Disability Insurance Agency’s PACE CRM project made the finding Wednesday.
It came after the committee obtained “written evidence” from Salesforce – the vendor contracted for the NDIA project – of “118 instances of hospitality and/or gifts passing to NDIA officials from Salesforce executives over an almost four-year period, both leading up to and after the award of the contract and throughout the period of extensive contract variations of more than $100 million.”
Committee chair Julian Hill said that “raises further serious questions about how widespread this sort of practice and culture may be in other Commonwealth entities, [both] by Salesforce and other major ICT vendors.”
The committee has asked Salesforce to supply a report on “all hospitality [it] has provided to Commonwealth officials in all entities over the past three years.”
But a broader examination involving many more vendors could also be on the cards, with Finance and the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) asked to lead it.
“The committee recommends that the Department of Finance and the Digital Transformation Agency take appropriate action to understand the extent to which inappropriate cultivation of Commonwealth officials may be occurring as a result of hospitality and gifts by major ICT vendors,” the committee report states.
iTnews has asked a spokesperson from the DTA for comment.