The B.C. government has lost another round in its eight-year battle to withhold the details of an out-sourcing contract with IBM.
BC Supreme Court Justice Keith Bracken has rejected the government’s appeal of a Freedom of Information ruling requiring it to release details of the $ 300-million deal with IBM.
Bracken says the government could not prove that releasing the information would expose its computer system to hacking.
Vincent Gogolek with the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association says the battle to obtain the contract began eight years ago.
“It’s a ten year contract, so we’re hoping we get it before it runs out.”
Gogolek says the public deserves the right to know why the government privatized its tech support services. Victoria has 30 days to file another appeal.
The NDP says the government has wasted taxpayers’ money with this.
Open government critic Doug Routley says it’s time to simply release that contract.
“This is a ridiculous circumstance where the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the release of this information repeatedly, and there has been appeal after appeal by the government, wasting taxpayers’ dollars to avoid telling taxpayers where their dollars are going and how they’re being spent.”
Labour Minister Margaret MacDiarmid says she hasn’t decided whether to appeal the court
She says the main consideration is the protection of data.
“The civil servants, the public servants that I trust and respect, have said unequivocally that they were very concerned about some of that information, about the location of government servers, the names of the servers, the types of equipment, that there was a real worry about a security risk. And I think the public expects people like me to take that very seriously.”
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