Opening up Commonwealth ICT contracts

BUSINESSES are being encouraged to provide feedback on how to make Government ICT contracts more accessible to small innovators.     

Assistant Minister for Digital Transformation Angus Taylor has called on technology companies, start-ups and digital providers to have their say.

“We’ve got to let the outside in; government needs to be porous. We need to open up our ICT contracts to smaller players to solve Government problems,” Assistant Minister Taylor said.

“How we work, how we buy goods and services, how we communicate, is being transformed by digital technology. Government is committed to improving the lives of all Australians through more effective digital services – the opportunity is too great to ignore.

“To capitalise on digital solutions in the private sector, we need to remove barriers for start-ups and SMEs who want to pitch their ideas and win Government ICT work.

“Procurement is the main gateway for the digital technology sector to provide solutions to government.

This gateway needs to be open and streamlined so that new technologies can be deployed quickly to improve public services.”

Speaking at an Open Opportunity forum in Canberra, Assistant Minister Taylor said a future procurement platform should be able ‘to ingest and provide technology’.

“In this framework you would be able to build on Government platforms to provide services and solutions. These solutions may be based entirely or partially on high quality Government data.”

Technology businesses are being encouraged to make a submission to the Commonwealth’s ICT Procurement Taskforce via a consultation paper, a website and upcoming roundtables.

The Taskforce is expected to report back to Government in early 2017.

To make a submission please visit the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet website: http://www.dpmc.gov.au/ictprocurementtaskforce.

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