Victoria's state Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) has maintained it will continue to fulfil its original role despite structural changes after the state election late last year.
"The function of the OCIO being carried out today is going to be continued to be carried out," OCIO principal analyst Terry Wright told the CIO Week conference in Sydney this week. "We know where it's going to be done, but actually internally how it's going to be done -- we're still piecing that out. So all the stuff that we've done in the past, we'll continue to do."
The Office was originally created to improve IT planning, delivery and procurement across government. It sat within the Department of Premier and Cabinet and was led by state CIO Jane Treadwell.
However, Victoria confirmed in December that Treadwell would be moved into a broader, shared-services role in the Department of Victorian Communities, as Labor election policy took effect. Other OCIO staff would move to a new Information Systems and Infrastructure Office within the Department of Treasury and Finance.
Treadwell did not return calls from ZDNet Australia.
According to Wright, the OCIO has brought positive changes to the Victorian Government by saving money, citing a KPMG audit last year that found OCIO delivered a 20 percent increase in benefits to the state.
Other successes of the OCIO had been the development of an investment management framework which had been adopted across government, Wright claimed.
When the move became public last year, some parties criticised it. Treadwell's former deputy, Dr Steve Hodgkinson, now public sector research director with analyst firm Ovum, said the changes devalued IT as a strategic asset and were part of a "cost-cutting agenda".
