Using data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the report published by Open Source experts, Sirius Corporation, also criticises the ‘closed shop’ mentality of Becta in their promotion of favoured suppliers and that this has resulted in the excessive spend and a distortion of the ICT market in schools.
The report concludes that over two-thirds of the expenditure with accredited suppliers is impossible to track. However it is clear that licenses and services supplied by global proprietary software vendors and a single hardware supplier account for 70% of all sales.
Dr. John Spencer, Head of Education at Sirius Corporation an the author of the report said: “It is unacceptable that so much money should be spend so indiscriminately. “Becta appears to operate a closed shop of ICT vendors which is limiting innovation in schools.”
