NEWHAM COUNCIL has refused to publish the revised arrangement it drew up with Microsoft last year after its previous deal failed to fulfill key deliverables.

The London Borough Council released details of the first deal, or memorandum of understanding, in response to a Freedom Of Information request in 2005. But this week it declined an FOI request to publish the revised terms and conditions.

Newham locked itself in to a 10-year deal to pay Microsoft £4.7 million for software as part of a £20 million IT infrastructure package with Hewlett Packard in 2003.

Elected councillors voted to buy Microsoft software instead of installing open source software, which is free, after being offered Microsoft discounts and an alluring array of promises in the original MOU that included a measurable improvement the Council's official performance rating.

The MOU failed to fulfill this and at least one other key deliverable. But Newham retained its 10-year deal with Microsoft and drew up a new MOU last year.

It is not clear whether the deliverables have been cut back and the payments of public money to Microsoft have been cut accordingly. Newham refused the INQUIRER's request to release the new MOU after, it said, conducting a public interest test.

"We have applied the Commercial Interest exemption; under Section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, as it is our view that it would prejudice the Council’s commercial interest," it said.

In other words this was a confidential matter regarding public money, which is an amusing contradiction. Likewise, the fact that the council did not refuse the FOI request that got it to release the first MOU in 2005.Why is no longer in the public interest for Newham to disclose details of the £20 million deal it agreed in the public interest?

Newham also noted that its "commercial interest" was a pretext for refusing to admit if there were new terms at all. µ