Government Online - A Report Card 1996 - 2001

A report on how the Victorian Government met its target of having all suitable government services online by 2001.

Smart Card Reports - Victoria

Describes the study initiated following the development of a Smart Card Strategy for the Victorian Government which identified a range of smart card-related opportunties and challenges facing governments in general.

Standard Corporate ICT Infrastructure Strategy

Describes the project's recommendations on common ICT infrastructure and whole of Victorian Government ICT governance.

Victoria Online Research Reports

Research reports commissioned prior to the development of the Victoria Online Portal.

Web Content Lifecycle and Content Management Roles

The web content lifecycle diagrammatic view and typical web content management roles and responsibilities within Victorian Government agencies.

Web Content Management Requirements Definition

The Whole of Victorian Government Web Content Management Requirements Definition Report has been developed to provide a set of core and optional requirements to assist in the procurement of Web Content Management systems by Victorian government Agencies.

Website Measurement and Demographic Profiling

Key findings and analysis of results of the effectiveness of the Victorian Government's online presence and users of Government services via the internet.

Web 2.0: The New Tools for Democratic Conversations – A snapshot of Initiatives in Government

This paper provides an overview of developments in the use of interactive online communications described as Web 2.0 and when applied in government, better known as Government 2.0.

Background Paper on Shared Services - Final Report

This report, prepared by Firecone and commissioned by the State Services Authority (SSA), provides findings and recommendations on objectives, structures and governance models for shared services arrangements for Victorian Government Departments.

Benefits of Government Online Services

This was a project to report on the benefits of the Government Online initiative and future funding issues. It commenced November 2000 and concluded in June 2001.

Community Languages Online

This report details findings and recommendations from research into how multilingual web-based government information can be created and used in the best way for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.

Connecting Victoria

Connecting Victoria is the Victorian Government's strategy for growing the information and communications technologies (ICT) industry and for sharing the benefits of these technologies across the entire Victorian community.

eServices Panel - Government and Industry Working Party Report

Following commencement of the eServices refresh panel in November 2011, the Minister for Technology invited representatives of the information and communication technology industry and government to form the eServices working party. The working party was asked to review the operation of the eServices panel and to recommend changes to improve the way government procures ICT services from the industry

Feasability Study To Determine Contents For Electronic Services Delivery Via Interactive Multimedia Kiosks

This study contains an evaluation of the suitability for kiosk implementation of products and services offered by each of the Government's budget sector agencies.

Information Discovery "Reality Check" Project: An Exploration of the Discoverability of Online Government Services: Report On Findings

This report was intended to provide a short pragmatic measure of the discoverability of existing online offerings, to draw conclusions and to make recommendations as to how discoverability of Victorian Government websites can be improved now and in the future.

Internet Information Architecture Best Practice Analysis

This document records findings from the internet best practice analysis activity conducted by the Information Architecture (IA) Strategy project team within the Web Domain Group, Department of Human Services (DHS). The best practices outlined in this document will be used as a reference point for the project team to help ensure the work produced by the IA Strategy project meets recognised best practices in the internet sector.

Intranet Information Architecture Best Practice Analysis

This document records findings from the intranet best practice analysis activity conducted by the IA Strategy project team in the Web Domain Group, Department of Human Services (DHS).

Investigation into allegations of improper conduct by CenITex officers

This report resulted from an investigation into a whistleblower disclosure in relation to procurement of contractors and contract services by CenITex (the centre for IT excellence). CenITex is a Victorian State Owned Enterprise, established by government in 2008, with the purpose of providing information, communication and technology services to government. My investigation discovered numerous breaches of the relevant procurement policies and guidelines.

Managing Legal Risks Online: A Guide for Victorian Government Web sites

This Whole of Victorian Government (WoVG) guideline is designed to assist those who have responsibility for designing, developing and operating Victorian Government websites to manage the relevant legal and regulatory issues. The focus is on the delivery of websites by the public sector. It is intended to deal with practical issues, to describe and explain the legal and regulatory terrain and frameworks, and to set out the techniques that should be used to address and manage concerns.

Service Based Business Case Guidelines

Guidelines for a service based business case were required to assist agencies in the achievement of Government Online objectives. These guidelines needed to demonstrate the value of Online Service Delivery (OSD) and identify those services that were suitable for OSD versus those that are not.

Victoria - Would your Business benefit from a Second Life?

Multimedia Victoria has produced a report on how businesses in Victoria might benefit from a presence in the Virtual World of Second Life.

Victoria Police Science and Technology Strategy 2008 - 2013

The Victoria Police science and technology strategy is providing a framework defining how, where and when Victoria Police should be investing in technology over the next five years.

Victorian Approaches to Joined Up Government: an overview

This report provides an overview of joined up approaches within Victoria. It explores the issues, barriers, strengths and lessons learned. It also considers whether there are opportunities to further develop the Victorian Government's institutional capacity (structures, systems and processes) to support a joined up approach.

Learning Technologies in Government Schools

Victorian Auditor-General's Office, Tabled: 12 December 2012. "This audit reviewed the effectiveness of learning technologies in government schools. In particular, the audit focused on two key Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) learning technology initiatives: VicSmart and the Ultranet. The government's current policy for ICT in school education, the Digital Learning Statement (the Statement), does not provide a clear action plan or framework for investment in learning technologies. This means that departmental staff and school leaders have little guidance on how future learning technology initiatives can be appropriately planned and integrated. Planning for the VicSmart high-speed fibre-optic network for all government schools was underpinned by a robust needs and options analysis. The high-speed connectivity that VicSmart provides is a key enabler of current and future digital learning in government schools. In contrast, the Ultranet was poorly planned and implemented. Six years after its announcement, it is yet to achieve expected benefits for students, parents and schools. It is significantly late, more than 80 per cent over its first announced budget, has very low uptake, and does not have originally intended functionality..."

Water Entities: Results of the 2011–12 Audits

Victorian Auditor-General's Report, Tabled: 14 November 2012. "This report covers the results of our financial audits of 20 entities, comprising 19 water entities and one controlled entity. The report informs Parliament about significant issues arising from the audits of financial and performance reports and augments the assurance provided through audit opinions included in the respective entities’ annual reports. The report comments on the quality and timeliness of financial and performance reporting, the financial sustainability of water entities and the effectiveness of internal controls over risk management and water tariff revenue..."

Privacy Victoria Annual Report 2011-12

Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner, October 2012. Report in accordance with the Financial Management Act 1994 and s 62 of the Information Privacy Act 2000, for the year ending 30 June 2012, for presentation to Parliament.

Inquiry into Effective Decision Making for the Successful Delivery of Significant Infrastructure Projects - Ombudsman - Melbourne, 22 August 2012 - in pdf format (135kb)

(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Parliament of Victoria - Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. Verified Version. Witnesses: Mr J. Taylor, Deputy Ombudsman (sworn), and Ms E. Barlow, Acting Principal Investigation Officer (affirmed), Victorian Ombudsman. "... If you have looked at our report—and I know you are focusing on a couple of the topics in our report—you will see that we reviewed, in conjunction with the Auditor-General, 10 major information technology projects undertaken by government in recent years. We drew the line at 10; we could have made it 15, but we focused on the 10 projects that exceeded $10 million and for which there were significant delays. Two of those, of course, are subjects of your review—that is, myki and HealthSMART. But equally I can talk about LINK and other major projects that have cost significant amounts of money and have failed or have not been implemented in a timely fashion. Overall the 10 projects we looked at identified a $1.4 billion loss to government, in that it was money spent but nothing was achieved. Most of the projects doubled in cost. HealthSMART went from $323 million to requiring an additional $243 million, and it is still not fully implemented. We identified what I would describe as scandalous waste—for example, the Victoria Police LINK project which was meant to replace LEAP. I should say, Mr Chairman, that in March 2005 the Ombudsman tabled in Parliament his report of the review of the LEAP system, which I was the author of. At the time we did that in conjunction with the newly created Office of Police Integrity. Here we are seven years later, and police are still using 20-year-old technology that is, I would think, on the verge of failing. We also looked at VicRoads and the RandL system, which has not made it past the design stage and for which $52 million has been wasted. So when we conducted the review it was important to the Ombudsman to determine who was responsible for this..."

Inquiry into Effective Decision Making for the Successful Delivery of Significant Infrastructure Projects - CSC - Melbourne , 22 August 2012 - in pdf format (89kb)

(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Parliament of Victoria - Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. Verified Version. Witnesses Mr J. Rice, Managing Director (affirmed), and Mr G. White, Operations Director (affirmed), CSC Australia. "... My name is James Rice; I am the managing director of the Healthcare Group of CSC. It is an Asia-Pacific role that covers Australia, obviously, and therefore Victoria. I have held that role since June 2010, prior to which I was the country manager for New Zealand and prior to that a sales director for a previous company. I will give the corporate history in a minute. My colleague, Gary White, is my operations director, but like myself he has held a range of roles within the organisation. The organisation itself, CSC, is new for us. CSC acquired the business of iSOFT in August last year. The business of iSOFT was the original contracting party with the HealthSMART program. That was two managing directors ago. I was also the managing director of iSOFT before CSC acquired us, so it was not my predecessor but the one before, Nigel Lutton, who signed the contract for the HealthSMART program work back in 2005. Gary White has been an employee of CSC and prior to that iSOFT for many years. His first introduction into the Australian part of the business was in 2008, and his role was specifically to come and be the project director for the HealthSMART project, which was three years into the five-year agreement that we signed in 2005. Subsequent to that, Gary has been promoted to the role of operations director for the health-care business.... My own personal dealings with the health department of Victoria I found to be a satisfactory engagement. I have not encountered any individuals who have appeared to be doing anything wrong or representing the government in a negative way. More recently we have been quite frustrated. You are probably aware that the HealthSMART agreement was for an initial period of five years. We signed a subsequent five-year contract a year and a bit ago now and we are yet to execute any services under that contract, other than the provision of support, which is a feature of the previous agreement. We have not been engaged to deliver any further professional services—in other words, implement more hospitals—which was certainly the spirit of the agreement we signed. There is a degree of frustration from our side that we were resourced up and prepared to do some work that has not actually eventuated..."

The State of the Public Sector in Victoria 2010-11 - in pdf format (2863 kb)

(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). State Services Authority, 2012. "... This year's report provides an overview of the functions performed by the Victorian public sector and a profile of the Victorian public sector workforce composition and distribution. It also explores public sector responses to workforce planning challenges, and identifies strengths and opportunities for improvement in employee perceptions of organisational culture in the Victorian public sector. To foster greater understanding of the diversity of the Victorian public sector, the report provides an overview of available organisational forms for Victorian public sector bodies. The State of the Public Sector in Victoria 2010–11 introduces a series of new data sets, including a demographic and remuneration profile of public sector board members, and a summary of the activities of the Victorian Leadership Development Centre. It also uses data from the public sector’s eRecruitment system to provide an overview of recruitment activity, including job advertisements, applications and placement of successful candidates..."

Telecommunications Spend and Demand in Victoria, 2012 - in pdf format (4172kb)

(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Report by Deloitte Access Economics Pty Limited for The Department of Business and Innovation, August 2012. "Victoria's telecommunications market has seen particularly rapid development in mobile data services as the range of devices utilising these networks increases. The Federal National Broadband Network (NBN) has begun to transform the sector. The rollout is set to provide fibre to around one third of Victorian premises over the next three years. Demand for high-speed broadband has increased in recent years and is forecast to continue to increase rapidly as the capabilities of the NBN are better understood and the mobile network is further upgraded. Total telecommunications expenditure for Victoria in 2011 is estimated to be $13.6 billion. By comparison, estimates for 2009-10 in the previous study estimated the market at $10.8 billion. The majority of this increased expenditure came from increased subscriptions for broadband up to 50Mbps and growth in mobile voice services. Total expenditure on fixed voice services fell between the two periods. Mobile data usage has grown substantially as prices fall and the range of devices able to use mobile data increases. However, those same rapid price declines meant growth in expenditure grew more slowly..."

Obsolescence of Frontline ICT: Police and Schools - Report

Victorian Auditor-General's Office, 20 June 2012. "Frontline information and communications technology (ICT) includes the hardware, software and supporting network infrastructure used to help public sector agencies deliver services. ICT can quickly become obsolete due to the high tempo of innovation and subsequent refresh rate of technology assets. Inadequate management of obsolescence of ICT assets could lead to poor or degraded service delivery. The audit objective was to assess whether obsolescence of ICT equipment and software is managed effectively and efficiently in the public sector..."

Science and Mathematics Participation Rates and Initiatives - Report

Victorian Auditor-General's Office, 6 June 2012. "Victoria's economic, social and environmental goals depend on better performance in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines. However, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) has not succeeded in raising achievement in science and mathematics or participation in the enabling sciences. While Victoria does reasonably well in getting its students to basic levels of achievement, there is an ongoing issue with the relatively low proportion of high achieving students. The middle years of schooling reveal a persistent and significant drop-off in achievement..."

Freedom of Information - Report

Victorian Auditor-General's Office, 18 April 2012. "The audit examined the extent to which the 11 Victorian public sector (VPS) departments and Victoria Police meet the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 1982... Since FOI legislation was introduced 30 years ago, Victoria has gone from being at the forefront of FOI law and administration to one of the least progressive jurisdictions in Australia. Over time, apathy and resistance to scrutiny have adversely affected the operation of the Act, restricting the amount of information being released. As a result, agencies are not meeting the object of the Act, which is 'to extend as far as possible the right of the community to access information'..."

CenITex Annual Report 2010-11

CenITex - September 2011. 2010-11 Annual Report of CenITex, including the Financial Statements for the year ended 30 June 2011. Our vision - To be the preferred supplier of 'One ICT Service' for the whole of Victorian Government (WoVG). This encompasses: - One secure desktop for all customers - One trusted network - One common directory (login process) - One WoVG hosting environment - One WoVG Information and Communications (ICT) Service Centre and Helpdesk Our mission - To provide industry-competitive, integrated and reliable ICT workplace and hosting services for the whole of Victorian Government, delivering efficient and excellent customer service and value..."

Victorian Government Advertising and Communications

Report from the Victorian Auditor-General's Office - Tabled 29 February 2012. PP No 105, Session 2010–12. "From July 2006 to December 2010, 11 departments and five agencies spent over $1 billion on advertising and communications. Government spending on advertising and communications is significant and has grown consistently since 2002. Given the political sensitivity and significance of this annual expenditure, full and fair disclosure of all advertising costs incurred is a critical accountability issue. However, currently, the level of transparency and accountability for government advertising and communications expenditure continues to be inadequate. Public reporting is partial and inaccurate, and there is inadequate oversight of government advertising activities. Estimated total expenditure exceeds publicly reported costs by up to 97 per cent. The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) has not adequately monitored and overseen advertising and communications activities across government..."

Portable Storage Devices - Privacy Survey - in pdf format (546kb)

(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Office of the Victorian Privacy Commissioner, December 2011. "... In 2008 Privacy Victoria undertook a survey into the Victorian Public Sector's use of portable storage devices (PSDs). The survey found that the Victorian Public Sector generally handled PSDs poorly. This potentially posed a serious security risk. One of the most serious issues was the scarcity of meaningful policies to control the use of PSDs in the surveyed organisations. This was specifically addressed with the release of Use of Portable Storage Devices – a guide to policy development in August 2009. This is a follow-up survey, undertaken to gauge the degree to which organisations had improved their management of the use of PSDs. In addition, there has been a series of technological, behavioural and procedural developments which are discussed in turn in this report..."

Own motion investigation into ICT-enabled projects - in pdf format (673kb)

(This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). Victorian Ombudsman in consultation with the Victorian Auditor-General, November 2011. Ordered to be printed Victorian government printer, Session 2010 - 11. P.P. No. 68 "... 2. In Victoria over the last few years, in our respective roles as Auditor-General and Ombudsman, we have tabled in Parliament a number of reports relating to ICT-enabled projects. These reports have identified significant shortcomings in the public sector’s management of such projects and have included numerous recommendations about how such management can be improved. 3. Despite these reports, we see little sign of lessons learnt in the public sector. The evidence to date is that the public sector is not managing ICT-enabled projects effectively, as demonstrated by the current difficulties that Victoria is facing in this area and the increasingly adverse public comment about major ICT-enabled projects. A new and more disciplined approach is required if the government is to avoid being faced with continuing cost overruns and failures to deliver..."

Victorian Government - Portfolio Departments: Interim Results of the 2009–10 Audits

Victorian Auditor-General's Office, Tabled 28 July 2010. "This report informs Parliament about internal control issues arising from our interim financial audit of the 11 portfolio departments and recommends improvement in their internal controls. Weaknesses identified in the information technology (IT) controls at portfolio departments should be addressed, particularly the oversight of outsourced IT providers, system wide security and aspects around the protection of personal information..."

e-Government Strategies - Victoria

Victorian government strategies relating to e-Government.