BC government back in court fighting FOI request for $300 million contract with IBM

FIPA Denounces Eight Year Battle as Waste of Time and Money

The BC government is in BC Supreme Court in Victoria today carrying on its fruitless legal battle to keep FIPA from getting an uncensored copy of its $300 million Workplace Services Agreement with IBM. The battle for disclosure of the full contract is now into its eighth year.

“This has got to be the longest and most expensive FOI request in BC history,” said FIPA Executive Director Vincent Gogolek. “The IBM contract has a ten year term, so there is a real chance that this battle could still be going after the contract itself has expired.”

The government has tried a number of legal gambits to keep the contract secret and has lost every one of them. It has also been forced to release other contracts, including several Alternative Service Delivery contracts worth $1.8 billion of taxpayers’ money.

“The government should act immediately to make all government contracts available on government websites,” said Gogolek. “The public has a right to know, and the government has run out of excuses for not releasing this information.”

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