Paul James, government chief digital officer.
Credit: Supplied
Government is scrutinising what it calls “baseline” ICT spending by agencies in search of savings and to ensure funds are being well deployed.
David Clark, minister for the digital economy and telecommunications, told Parliament’s governance and administration committee last month while new investments were subject to controls there had been a lack of ability to scrutinise baseline ICT spending.
“There’s a really good working relationship between the Treasury and the Department of Internal Affairs to assess Budget bids, and that’s been strengthened over recent years, to make sure that that investment is coordinated,” he told the committee.
“But one area historically governments haven’t dug into is the baseline spending. And the majority of spending on digital initiatives actually comes out of government baselines. And there has been a lack of the ability to scrutinise that, to assess whether it’s really in the wider Government interest as opposed to the particular department’s preference.”
It was essential to have good leadership across the public sector to make sure digital investments were coordinated, prioritised, and supported wider strategic goals, Clark said.
Government chief digital officer Paul James, who is also the chief executive of the Department of Internal Affairs, together with Treasury, the government chief data steward, the chief information security officer and the property and procurement lead at MBIE, were establishing a roadmap for investment to make sure government was taking advantage of economies of scale and the advantages of using common products across government.
“It’s what large corporations are doing,” Clark said. “And in a way, it’s something, you know, we could ask why government hasn’t done it for decades, but we are doing it now.”
The minister invited GCDO Paul James to speak about his mandate to coordinate how to do purchasing, cyber security and other functions better across government.
James said there had been a digital strategy for government in place for some years. The strategy was meant to be an alignment tool that told departments what they should be aiming for and how to build consistency.
“What we do want to get to is government departments need to have some of their own technology,” James said. “They need to make their own choices about how they deliver to their own customers, they need to carry their own operational risk.
“I don’t think getting to one system is the answer. But we can leverage, we can have more of the same, we can commoditise.”
James gave payroll as an example. where a procurement panel of accredited payroll providers configured to a common set of expectations and processes had been created.
“We put in place an assurance system that agencies can use when they’re refreshing their payroll system,” he said. “So, we’re not going to have one single payroll system for all of Government; that would create too big a risk profile, in our view.
“But we’ve done a whole lot of things to try and reduce complexity and create leverage opportunities in trying to get to more of the same as opposed to everything being distinctive.
“And that’s an example of the sort of work that we do.”
The Department of Internal Affairs has been asked for further comment and details of its baseline spending project.
