The Queensland Government Chief Procurement Office (QGCPO) will be replaced with two new bodies, a procurement policy unit and a newly formed Procurement Centre of Excellence (PCoE). The PCoE will consolidate all of the procurement functions currently located across the Department of Housing and Public Works.
Dr Bruce Flegg will temporarily stand in as Queensland Minister for Science, IT, Innovation and the Arts while Ros Bates takes leave to have reconstructive surgery on her shoulder. Dr Flegg is the Minister for Housing and Public Works.
The UK’s Financial Times is reporting that Fujitsu has been effectively blacklisted from selling to the British Government, following the termination of a £900m deal to install electronic patient records across the south of England in 2008. The UK Cabinet has refused to confirm the claims.
Recent activity on AusTender has revealed the full value of the data carriage services being procured by the Department of Human Services (DHS) through the Internet Based Network Connections (IBNC) panel. The IBNC component will be worth $269 million across the full allowable term of the contract (8 years) including GST. These services will be provided by Telstra, which was awarded the DHS managed telecommunications services contract earlier this year, but are required to be purchased separately by the Department of Finance and Deregulation under the requirements of the coordinated procurement program.
The DHS has also signed a $31.5 million contract with the other contender for its managed services deal, Optus. The eight month contract looks to be a transition-out arrangement ahead of Telstra’s assumption of end-to-end telecommunications services. Optus is the incumbent outsourcer for the formerly independent Medicare.
Victoria’s Department of Business and Innovation has invited expressions of interest from software suppliers who are able to provide it with a financial system to support its budgeting and forecasting functions.
IT jobs within government are clearly no longer immune from budget cuts, even with the ever-present threat of a skills shortage still looming.
This week, IT News reported that the Victorian Department of Human Services will take 40 IT staff off its books, as part of a redundancy program set to hit as much as 15 per cent of its workforce.
IT News also says that Queensland ICT shared services provider CITEC will cut 80 business support positions.
The winner of Tasmania’s whole-of-government Managed Voice Services contract, Anittel, will partner with Cisco to provide IP voice services to the State.
The NSW Procurement Board is busy developing new and revised contract modules appropriate for all the shapes and sizes of ICT procurement taking place within the public sector.
“Simplified short-form contracts being developed will reduce the burden on small and medium enterprises...Later modules of the Procure IT contract suite will be rolled out under the strategy to support pay-as-you-go consumption models,” Minister for Finance and Services, Greg Pearce, told Parliament.
CA has been awarded a $6.6 million software contract by the Department of Human Services, through the Department’s Enterprise Storage Panel.
TransACT has become the latest supplier to win business through the Federal Government’s Data Centre Facilities Panel. It has entered into a 10 year lease with the Family Court of Australia for $379,687.
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