[wdmmg-discuss] COINS contract

[Lisa Evans]

>> We may still be barking up the wrong hat-stand.  COINS is probably no
>> more than a visualization tool -- not the database.  What we need is
>> the part which explains how they import the data from the "*.money"
>> file they get emailed from the Home Office, and then go for these
>> imports.
>
> That would seem to be borne out by http://www.terasolve.com/camelot.html
> which seems to be the software mentioned in the contract.
>
> Not so sure the Home Office is the (only) source of the data though, at
> the very least I would expect the Foreign Office to similarly send
> information to the treasury.

Yes, all government departments have input to COINS. The departments 
define their spending categories for COINS and then they update the 
treasury with how much they have spend against each of these categories by 
filling out this form every year:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/cra_form.xls

There are other processes that involve COINS too, that I know of, such as 
COINS contains the estimates of spending, the agreed spending as well as 
where the spending has been of benefit.

> A reasonable follow-up might be to ask for the tender documents and
> project specifications that led to this contract being awarded (ideally
> along with their responses). Normally we would find the data sources
> that were to be processed spelled out there (otherwise how could
> companies be expected to bid sensibly?).

Yes, I'll do that.