This is a real shame. There was a time in the not-too-distant past when GDS was seen as the gold standard by governments and tech workers worldwide.
GDS employees—referred to as “blue-jean kids” by one permanent secretary—would agree on a project with a department, only to find that the department launched its own version of the service soon afterwards. GDS was empowered to restructure the procurement of IT systems across government, relying on its staffers’ technical nous to put better standards in place, but often departments would ignore its advice and buy whatever big, expensive systems they wanted.
Classic.