Important recommendations omitted

Why was important recommendations from McKinsey omitted in the report 'A professional and well driven police' to the Parliament?

From the report from McKinsey with the financial analyzes:

The section 'Use of cheaper software':

That in stead (of Microsoft Office) works with a scenario with a shift to OpenOffice.org or Star Office, as the product is called, when delivered from SUN (Oracle). By using a well know supplier such as SUN(Oracle), that now also develops and supports MySQL as well as Star Office, it will be assured that support is available with the quality the police needs. (p. 83-84)

A shift to OpenOffice.org or Star Office will according to McKinsey result in savings around 100 mio DKK untill 2017. McKinsey has also analyzed the initial costs that comes with the shift, and the estimates are between 2 and 7½ mio DKK. An investment that pays of after just a few months (p. 84).

It is further noted that shift to open source vill call for investments in education of the IT-staff and end users. These investments are estimated to be no more that 1 mio DKK., wich is a very small amount in comparison to the possible cost savings. Both in Denmark and international exists good examples of companies and organizations, that has taken advantage of the potential cost savings by shifting to OpenOffice products (p. 85).

The low investments required combined with the large cost savings is causing McKinsey to recommend:

An open source strategy that clearly recommends alternative software purchase like MySQL for especially database solutions to reduce costs (p. 86).

These recommendations is completely omitted in the official report from the Minister of Justice. The section about 'use of cheaper software' only says

The police is today using Microsoft Office 2007, wich is infact a newer version than most companies and organizations. In the current agreement with Microsoft it's planned to upgrade to a newer version within 3-4 years, but the benefits of such upgrade will be very limited. McKinsey therefor recommends that the upgrade of Microsoft Office and Windows is postponed, wich will reduce costs with a yearly amount of 13 mio. DKK (p. 85).

The list of relevant references, e.g., Swedish police, the Frensh Gendarmerie etc. are completely left out in the official report.

A police report

Last Friday the Minister of Justice revealed a report regarding the Danish police's finances. The background is that the police in Denmark has been spending much more money over the last many years, than they where allowed to in the budget.

The report is analyzing many parts of the police, e.g., a very week HR division and so on and so forth.

Of cause there is a chapter regarding software. Unqualified project management and lack of structured software purchase are two major issues. A solution to save money in the coming year are described in a chapter called 'Use of cheaper software' and the official report from the Government describes how upgrading to MS Office 2010 can be postponed for three or four years.

Thats all!

What is about to become a major scandal in the Parliament is that the same chapter in the original report from McKinsey & Company is a clear and undiscussable recommendation of open source software in general and OpenOffice.org in particular. The title of the that chapter is 'Use of cheaper software' suddenly makes sense.

The opposition parties are now asking the Minister, why there crystal clear recommendations of F/OSS and OpenOffice.org has been erased from the official version.

Are the police not willing to participate in cost reduction?

Links:
The official report (in Danish): http://www.justitsministeriet.dk/fileadmin/downloads/Pressemeddelelser2010/Et%20professionelt%20og%20veldrevet%20dansk%20politi.pdf

The original report (in Danish): http://www.justitsministeriet.dk/fileadmin/downloads/Pressemeddelelser2010/Budgetanalyse%20af%20politiet%202009-2010%20McKinsey%20&%20Company.pdf