The Australian National Audit Office has released a scathing report about the Digital Transformation Agency’s handling of nine selected procurements, saying it “did not conduct the procurements effectively and its approach fell short of ethical requirements”.
In the review, released on Wednesday, the ANAO also said for these nine procurements the DTA failed to manage contracts effectively and, while it had a procurement framework, the implementation and oversight of it were weak. The original value of seven of these procurements was $25.4 million, but the amount blew out to $55.7 million by July 2022.
The review said of one direct-approach procurement that the contract value had increased 40 times from $121,000 to close to $5 million over two years.
This procurement involved a direct approach to a company known as Nous Group for myGov funding case support. Initially, Services Australia told DTA in March 2020 that some Nous contractors were available for hire.
|
The company agreed to begin work on myGov updates with a change to a Services Australia contract, but began the work before the contract was finalised. The new contract was signed on 25 May 2020 for $121,000 and then varied 10 times to take its final value to $4.9 million.
Another case study involved a direct approach by the DTA to the company CyberCX, a firm that was set up in 2019 with former Optus Business managing director, John Paitaridis, as its head, and Alastair MacGibbon, former head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, as chief strategy officer.
This procurement was for a new initiative called Harden Australian Government IT, which was to involve consideration of secure cyber hubs.
In this case, 16 suppliers who were on the digital marketplace were approached and five tenders were obtained and evaluated. But in the end all were ignored and CyberCX was given the contract in December 2020, for an initial amount of $1 million.
“On 26 March 2021, three months after the initial contract was signed, the contract was varied to increase the scope to include deliverables related to business case and model development,” the ANAO review said.
“The value of the contract was increased by $1.6 million to $2.6 million. As at May 2022 the contract value had been varied four times and increased to 8.5 times its original value ($8,513,313). The end date after the fourth variation was 30 August 2022.”
The ANAO provided a number of other cases studies illustrating the shortcomings it pointed out in the review.
The audit office made eight recommendations to the DTA which agreed to all of them. A ninth, made to the Department of Finance, was “noted”.
The DTA said it welcomed the review and “agrees with the ANAO’s focus on providing increased transparency over the DTA’s internal procurement framework with a view to ensuring contracts are managed effectively and value for money is achieved”.
The agency added: “While the audit report identifies shortfalls in relation to internal procurement processes, controls and education, each of the sampled procurements still achieved their intended outcomes and supported critical delivery requirements in an unprecedented pandemic environment.”
GET READY FOR XCONF AUSTRALIA 2022
Thoughtworks presents XConf Australia, back in-person in three cities, bringing together people who care deeply about software and its impact on the world.
In its fifth year, XConf is our annual technology event created by technologists for technologists.
Participate in a robust agenda of talks as local thought leaders and Thoughtworks technologists share first-hand experiences and exchange new ways to empower teams, deliver quality software and drive innovation for responsible tech.
Explore how at Thoughtworks, we are making tech better, together.
Tickets are now available and all proceeds will be donated to Indigitek, a not-for-profit organisation that aims to create technology employment pathways for First Nations Peoples.
Click the button below to register and get your ticket for the Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane event
PROMOTE YOUR WEBINAR ON ITWIRE
It’s all about Webinars.
Marketing budgets are now focused on Webinars combined with Lead Generation.
If you wish to promote a Webinar we recommend at least a 3 to 4 week campaign prior to your event.
The iTWire campaign will include extensive adverts on our News Site itwire.com and prominent Newsletter promotion https://itwire.com/itwire-update.html and Promotional News & Editorial. Plus a video interview of the key speaker on iTWire TV https://www.youtube.com/c/iTWireTV/videos which will be used in Promotional Posts on the iTWire Home Page.
Now we are coming out of Lockdown iTWire will be focussed to assisting with your webinars and campaigns and assistance via part payments and extended terms, a Webinar Business Booster Pack and other supportive programs. We can also create your adverts and written content plus coordinate your video interview.
We look forward to discussing your campaign goals with you. Please click the button below.
