Met Office weathers conflict of interest enquiries

The Met Office has defended its decision to employ an individual as its Chief Information Officer (CIO) while he also remains an executive at IBM - the organisation's main supplier.

The gentleman in question, David Young, was seconded from Big Blue last December to run the Met Office's IT until the end of October, according to the Campaign4Change website.

The arrangement, which involves the Met Office paying at least part of Young's IBM salary, does not breach government rules on procurement says the Met Office in a statement. 

"Full consideration of any potential conflicts of interest regarding David Young's appointment was fully considered prior to his appointment and his terms of engagement specifically cover these," says the state weather forecasting service.

"The Met Office complies with specific rules set by the government with regard to procurement and purchases of IT equipment must be agreed by the Met Office Executive."

The Met Office is one of IBM's biggest UK customers, deploying one of the supplier's supercomputers to create a model of atmospheric conditions that contains a million lines of code.

Young's Linked In profile says he is "CIO at the Met Office and Director, System zStack and Mainframe Platform, Central Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa at IBM".

Correspondence obtained under a Freedom of Information Act shows that the Met Office went to considerable lengths to gain approval for an appointment that potentially breached government rules on taking on secondees. Young's employment was eventually approved by the Secretary of State for Defence.

The Met Office's original job description talks of the CIO overseeing the "selection, acquisition, development and installation of major information systems". 

Young's main responsibilities, says the Met Office, include directing and co-ordinating 300 information technology and programme/project management professionals, plus support staff.