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Nearly 7,000 Australians have created a myGovID

By the end of 2018-19, the Digital Transformation Agency said there had been 11,785 downloads of its myGovID iOS smartphone app.
Written by Asha Barbaschow, Contributor
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The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) said it has achieved its goal of delivering a single, secure way for people to verify their identity online once and use it multiple times to access different government services.

"We continued to work with agencies and the community to develop the standard for Digital Identity, to deliver a faster, simpler and more secure way to access online government services," the DTA wrote in its 2018-19 Annual Report [PDF].

The DTA said that by the end of 2018-19, there had been 11,785 downloads of its myGovID iOS smartphone app and 6,676 digital identities created.

The app was quietly released in Apple's app store in June and an Android version was released earlier this month.

Specifically, the agency's 2018-19 work covered the Trusted Digital Identity Framework, which according to Minister for Government Services Stuart Robert, will provide the standards that ensure everyone has a safe, secure, and reliable way to use government services online; the creation of the Services Australia-run Exchange, which is a place where citizens can choose their identity provider; myGovID, delivered by the Australian Taxation Office; Digital iD, handled by Australia Post; the Face Verification Service (FVS) and the Document Verification Service (DVS), both of which are controlled by the Department of Home Affairs; and the Relationship Authorisation Manager, which enables individuals to act on behalf of a business.

See also: Canberra wants to open digital identity system to commercial sector

"During the year we further progressed the Digital Identity program by working on a small number of pilot services, which are helping us learn from real users to make sure Digital Identity meets their needs," it wrote.

On myGov -- the government's online service portal that has been touted as a secure way to access services online with one login and one password -- the DTA said the number of active myGov accounts created since its launch in 2013 increased from 13 million at the end of 2017-18 to 15.6 million at the end of 2018-19.

The number of daily logins increased from around 335,000 in 2017-18 to more than 500,000 in 2018-19. It said, during the year, myGov maintained 99.94% availability.

In addition to the delivery of whole-of-government digital platforms such as Digital Identity, Notifications, Tell Us Once, and improvements to myGov, for 2018-19, the DTA set itself three further priorities: The delivery of a digital transformation strategy and roadmap; a program of digital capability improvement, including sourcing reform; and the delivery of investment advice, an assurance policy and framework, and whole-of-government portfolio oversight on IT and digital investments.

The DTA said that in 2018-19, it provided advice to agencies and government on new IT proposals and increased its direct engagement with agencies to support the delivery of current projects.

It said it co-designed and brokered assurance activities for projects funded as part of the APS Modernisation Fund.

"During 2018-19, we adopted a new account management model to increase and streamline engagement with APS agencies, and thereby improve our oversight of digital and ICT investments across government," the annual report said.

Must read: Government IT projects failing as DTA's phone calls go unanswered

For the 2019-20 Budget, the DTA said it also engaged with 18 agencies on new digital and IT-enabled proposals by providing advice to assist agencies to develop these proposals.

Although the DTA has stopped publishing a list of the agencies and projects it was watching closely,the annual report said the agency collected performance information quarterly from 27 agencies to understand the status, risks, and trajectory of 85 existing projects. This was supplemented, the DTA said, with face-to-face engagement with the majority of agencies.

From February through to June, the DTA said it met with 34 agencies to discuss 53 existing projects and 17 new initiatives.

Meanwhile, under the banner of developing a "program of digital capability improvement, including sourcing reform", was the brokering of whole-of-government major sourcing agreements with Microsoft,SAP, and Concur; and the establishment of whole-of-government agreements with IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

See also: Australia-wide AWS deal could signal the end for legacy IT procurement

It also included the establishment of the hardware marketplace panel and an expansion of the software licensing and services panel.

The digital transformation strategy and roadmap were delivered in November last year and have the goal of not only bringing all services online by 2025, but to have Australia counted as one of the world's top three digital governments.

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