4.4 The E-Commerce and Banking Code14 projects offer SBS additional revenue opportunities outside the original contract. NS&I and SBS agreed these variations through their joint control process and NS&I audits the costs of the changes on an annual basis. SBS will have further opportunities, through the experience it has gained on the projects and the associated development of skilled resources, for example in the provision of print facilities and the call centre, to develop third party business. Such additional business will reduce SBS's need to cut staff numbers and hence save SBS the costs of further redundancies.
4.5 Our review of the e-commerce channel project revealed that NS&I has not always fully or clearly documented its decisions to award work outside the contract to SBS or to pay SBS additional money, based on a value for money analysis. NS&I's website became operational in July 2002, although it was due to go live by February 2002. NS&I told us that it was its decision to delay as it required additional testing to ensure risks were properly managed. As no blame for the delay was attributed to SBS, NS&I agreed to pay SBS £1.6 million from March to June 2002 to cover the costs already incurred by SBS. In providing SBS with additional revenue opportunities NS&I must demonstrate that variations to the contract represent value for money and ensure decisions are supported by an adequate audit trail.
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14 The Customer and Banking codes are defined in Paragraph 1.16.