The Home Office’s chief technology officer Denise McDonagh has received a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for her services to the IT world, such as leading the G-Cloud framework, despite numerous issues plaguing the system since its inception.

McDonagh has worked in the civil service for over 25 years, with IT projects ranging from DEFRA to the Home Office, and taking charge of IT renovation projects with budgets in excess of £100 million. Her 2009 Home Office “extend and blend” programme reportedly removed £100 million of unnecessary costs over the duration of multiple IT contracts.

However, the G-Cloud project has come under fire in recent months, most recently with the government admitting that the service was still ‘underused’ despite having been available for more than a year and spending on the project only reaching £22m, a tiny amount in government spending terms. She stepped down from the role last month, but remains the chief technology officer for the Home Office.

The scheme, which is designed to streamline the process of procuring IT services to public sector bodies through an online shop known as CloudStore, suffered at the hands of excessive red tape and lack of clarity among government departments.

Despite these roadblocks, McDonagh said in February that a change it attitude was required before G-Cloud can truly take off: “The move to purchasing IT services as a commodity requires a culture shift for the public sector that won’t happen overnight,” she insisted.

McDonagh will deliver a keynote entitled ‘It’s Only Just Begun’ at tomorrow’s ‘Think G-Cloud’ event in London. V3 contacted McDonagh and the Home Office for comment on the appointment but had received no reply at the time of publication.