NICTA, courts winners in ACT Budget
The ACT Government will provide National ICT Australia (NICTA) with a $10 million grant, and will spend an additional $22.5 million on IT projects aimed at improving the territory — the majority of which will go into implementing a new case management system for its courts.
The largest IT initiative from the ACT Government's 2012-13 Budget is a $10 million grant to NICTA. The initiative provides NICTA with $2.5 million in annual grants for the next four years, and also provides the national research organisation with a payroll tax exemption of $500,000 in each of those years.
On top of this, the Budget also details some $22.5 million in new capital for IT projects.
A total of $8.2 million over three years will be spent to develop and implement a new courts and tribunal case management system. The system will help the territory to manage cases, court orders, hearing times, associated financial payments, reporting and the exchange of information between government agencies.
It will be supported, in part, by a new ACT sentencing database, which will cost the Territory $634,000 to implement. The ACT Government expects that the database will promote consistency in sentencing and reduce the number of unnecessary appeals.
Other large ticket items include the upgrade of the territory's data storage facilities and network equipment. It has allocated about $5.1 million over three years, to upgrade its storage platform and lease additional data space from 2013-14. Its existing datacentre will also see an upgrade to the tune of $610,000 and involve purchasing more equipment.
The government's aging network infrastructure will also be refreshed this financial year, with plans to replace hardware, such as servers, switches and routers, for a total of $2.4 million. As the funding is slated for this immediate year, and is not spread out, it represents the largest cost for the territory in the 2012-13 financial year.
An additional $990,000 has been set aside for the ACT Teacher Quality Institute, which will upgrade the institute's IT systems, to comply with national and local legislation. The territory's Emergency Triple Zero service will also be strengthened, by upgrading the existing telephone infrastructure behind the service, including its backup communication centre. The cost of doing so is $298,000, over two years.
The territory has allocated $1.9 million, over two years, for the implementation of a new identity and access management system for its IT systems. In recognition that information is going mobile, it has set aside $603,000 to implement a mobile device management system, to allow user secure access to government information from mobile devices.
In this vein, the government has also decided to spend $200,000 on a document management system. The system will ensure that directorate staff involved in providing documents to ministers and the legislative assembly, will have the correct information.
Other funding will go into feasibility studies and reviews, to find ways to better use or upgrade IT to meet government needs.
Treasury will spend $400,000 on a feasibility study on its IT, expecting the study will help to decide whether to replace or upgrade its revenue management systems. The ACT Government's Human Resources Information Management System will also undergo review. The review is expected to cost about $1.1 million.
A total of $100,000 will be spent on a feasibility study to determine whether the Territory's ACT Internal Omnibus Network (ACTION) buses need to have their CCTV systems replaced or upgraded, and an additional $100,000 will be used to purchase 10 MyWay terminals, which will allow public transport users to recharge their MyWay cards.
The government has also found some $4.8 million in savings over the next three years, by using better lifecycle management to extend the operating life of its existing IT infrastructure.