Gershon returns to Canberra
Sir Peter Gershon will return to Canberra next week as the British efficiency guru gears up to deliver a landmark report to finance and deregulation minister Lindsay Tanner on how the federal public sector could better spend its annual $6 billion IT budget.
Gershon's visit, confirmed today to ZDNet.com.au by a spokesperson for Tanner, will be longer than his previous trip to Canberra in early July. He will stay until the end of August.
Razor gang ... Sir Peter Gershon and Lindsay Tanner.
The spokesperson said Gershon had gathered all the data required from agencies and industry for the review and his focus in the final weeks would be on "pulling together" that information before the document was handed over in early September.
Gershon returns to Australia amidst high levels of uncertainty for federal government agencies regarding their technology support divisions, especially those attempting to engage suppliers for expiring IT outsourcing contracts.
After the review is handed over, Tanner's cost-cutting 'razor gang' is likely to sweep into action to pare down portions of the government's IT spend.
Top-level government technology officials such as federal chief information officer Ann Steward have publicly signalled their willingness to cooperate with Gershon during the process, which could result in a significant shakeup with the potential to create new public sector technology czars.
Agencies directly approached by Gershon during his first visit to Australia in July included a list dubbed the 'Deep Nine', meaning agencies that had been thoroughly investigated by Gershon.
The Deep Nine roster includes Centrelink, Medicare Australia, the Australian Tax Office (ATO), the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, and the Attorney General's Department amongst others, but not the biggest spending agency, the Department of Defence.
Along with the ATO, Defence has the largest annual IT budget of all Australian departments. With more than $700 million per year each, these two agencies each spend more than double the next biggest spender, Centrelink, which has an annual budget of $300 million.
A spokesperson for Tanner's office told ZDNet.com.au that while Defence was not included in Gershon's so-called Deep Nine list, it was always within the scope of the review, but its procurement processes have not been as thoroughly scrutinised.
Some non-Deep Nine agencies are already being affected by Gershon's review, such as the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA), which last week released a tender for its outsourcing work, currently held by troubled IT services company Commander. DEWHA stated it was prepared to scrap the procurement effort should Gershon's review require it to do so.