The Government has released Sir Peter Gershon’s report on his independent review of the Australian Government’s use of information and communication technology (ICT).

The report analyses a wide range of issues affecting the Government’s use and management of ICT, and also outlines a staged plan for the implementation of recommendations.

The key findings were:

1. There is weak governance of pan-government issues related to ICT.
2. Agency governance mechanisms are weak in respect of their focus on ICT efficiency and an understanding of organisational capability to commission, manage and realise benefits from ICT-enabled projects.
3. The business as usual (BAU) ICT funding in agencies is not subject to sufficient challenge and scrutiny.
4. There is a disconnect between the stated importance of ICT and actions in relation to ICT skills.
5. There is no whole-of-government strategic plan for data centres. In the absence of such a plan, the Government will be forced into a series of ad hoc investments which will, in total, cost in the order of $1 billion more than a coordinated approach over a 15-year period.
6. The government ICT marketplace is neither efficient nor effective.
7. There is a significant disconnect between the Government’s overall sustainability agenda and its ability to understand and manage energy costs and the carbon footprint of its ICT estate.

The recommendations include:

Governance

• Establish a Ministerial Committee on ICT to be responsible for the key whole-of-government ICT policies and the overall strategic vision for how ICT should support the achievement of the Government’s outcomes and wider policy agenda.
• Create a Secretaries’ ICT Governance Board (SIGB) with a strong mandate from the Government to drive the agreed recommendations arising from the review and focus on addressing the key business issues to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Government’s use of ICT.
• Allow agencies to obtain opt-outs, based on genuine business need, from agreed whole-of-government activities. Opt-outs to be approved by the Ministerial Committee, informed by the SIGB.

Capability

• Improve agency capability to commission, manage and realise the benefits from ICT-enabled projects through the implementation of a common methodology for assessing agency capability based on self-assessment and periodic independent audit. Each agency Chief Executive to propose a target level of capability based on their agency’s and the Government’s strategic priorities, and for this to be independently validated. Agencies to develop a capability improvement plan with commitment, and agreed actions, to address identified gaps.

ICT spend

• Target to move total FMA Act agency ICT spend from an average 77:23% split between ICT BAU activities and creation of new capability in 2007–08 to an average 70:30% in 2011–12.
• As initial steps towards this goal, reduce the ICT BAU budgets of the largest 28 FMA Act agencies (Defence excluded) with ICT spends in excess of $20 million per annum by 15% from 2007–08 actuals, with a phased introduction over two years.
• Create ICT Review Teams to help these agencies achieve or exceed the target reductions without impairing service delivery to citizens and business.
• In addition, target agencies with total annual ICT spends between $2 million and $20 million to achieve a 7.5% reduction on average of their BAU from 2007–08 actuals, with a phased introduction over two years.
• The 15% and 7.5% reductions in total should save the Government around $140 million in the first year and in excess of $400 million in the second and subsequent years. 50% of the savings generated by these recommendations to be transferred to a central fund for reinvestment in projects to improve efficiency and effectiveness of ICT BAU activities, such as replacement of legacy software and hardware with high support and maintenance costs.

Skills

• Create a whole-of-government Australian Public Service (APS) ICT career structure, including training and development programs for ICT professionals in key skills areas.
• Develop and maintain a whole-of-government strategic ICT workforce plan.
• Reduce the total number of ICT contractors in use across FMA Act agencies by 50% over a 2-year period and increase the number of APS ICT staff. This should save the Government an estimated $100 million (across both BAU and project-related work).

Data centres

• Develop a whole-of-government approach for future data centre requirements over the next 10–15 years.

Sustainable ICT

• Develop a whole-of-government ICT sustainability plan (in conjunction with the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts) to manage the energy costs and carbon footprint of the Government’s ICT activities.

The Government is currently considering the findings and recommendations.