A REPORT has revealed that Barnet's Conservative councillors have paid £164,176 for I.T help to ensure Capita delivers the correct council strategy.

The decision was taken in an officer delegated powers report on July 25.

Barnet Council have paid for independent technical assurance from Lockheed Martin to ensure Capita CSG delivers the council's ICT strategy properly.

A summary read: “The Council has sought a partner to provide technical assurance of proposals that CSG will submit to seek approval to deliver the main components of the ICT strategy. The council will require technical assurance support throughout the delivery of these components."

The Times series previously reported that Labour councillors called for outsourcing firm Capita to be fined, after it emerged it was not providing Barnet Council with the IT disaster recovery system it was paid to.

During an audit committee last month, it revealed that Barnet council was not paying for the I.T service it expected.

Leader of the Barnet Labour Group, Cllr Barry Rawlings said: “After the Library IT crash and the damning audit report on IT Disaster Recovery, confidence in Capita's ability to deliver the Council's IT is at an all time low - even amongst Conservative councillors. This is yet more evidence that the thin client model where Capita monitors itself is not working and was never going to work.

“The amount of money the council is having to spend on things that are not covered by the core Capita contract is starting to mount up.”

In discussions with Brett Holtom, who works with Capita, it emerged that the IT Disaster Recovery service, where data lost after one hour should be recovered within 48 hours with a maximum one hour's data loss, is not being delivered.

But it found that some would not be recovered at all, while others would be restored within 96 hours, with up to a day’s data loss.

Cllr Richard Cornelius, Leader of the Council, previously said that the council will work with Capita to ensure the “most important systems are categorised in the highest level of disaster recovery.”

A council spokesperson, who they refused to name, said: "It is good practice to proactively carry out assurance on complex or high value projects.

"This technical assurance will help us ensure that our IT strategy is resilient and meets the council’s requirements.

"The council continues to challenge the performance of its services and contracts publicly through council committees."