British efficiency expert Sir Peter Gershon has suggested agency budget cuts totalling $540 million, castigating the federal public sector for poor governance mechanisms on technology projects and an ICT spending model which gave individual departments and agencies too much autonomy.
The Government 2.0 taskforce has called for public comments on its Towards Government 2.0 discussion paper.
The Gershon report's recommendation for the Federal Government to reduce its reliance on ICT contractors was based on flawed data, according to ITCRA, an organisation which represents Australian technology recruiters.
Sir Peter Gershon, the procurement expert responsible for slashing 23 billion (AU$49 billion) from the UK government's budget through ICT efficiency reviews has been recruited by Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner for the Federal government's budget Razor Gang.
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 recommendations are consistent with those of other jurisdictions that have undertaken similar reviews, and are aimed at giving the ICT centralisation/decentralisation pendulum a shove back towards the centre. This is, however, easier said than done.
The long-term net impact of Gershon's idealistic review will realistically be negligible at best and at worst will prove to be a distraction for years to come.
Federal finance minister Lindsay Tanner says the government will beef up the independence of the Future Fund to remove doubt over its ability to make its own decisions, particularly on Telstra.
Canberra apparently has two plagues: kangaroos and IT contractors. After years fattening up on Canberra's fields, they've been marked by the government for a major cull. But is the latter group still the problem they once were?
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