Victorian government appoints new head of CenITex
Victoria's Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips announced on Tuesday the appointment of the Victorian Chief Technology Advocate Grantly Mailes as the new chair of the state government's IT services provider, the Centre for IT Excellence (CenITex).
"Mailes has a wealth of experience and a proven track record advising successive governments on policy matters, ICT strategy, promotion of innovative use of ICT in government service delivery, and guiding ICT project delivery," Rich-Phillips said.
While the government-owned CenITex previously provided the government's IT services, it will be moving into a broker role, with the Victorian government last month inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) from companies wanting to provide IT services to the various agencies and departments. EoI registration closed on October 10, with the short-listed applicants to be announced later this month and the contracts to commence in May next year.
The services being requested are in line with the state's recently released ICT Strategy (PDF), the final version of which was published in February, after listening to and applying feedback from the public on its draft strategy (PDF).
"The ICT Strategy marks a significant shift for the delivery of ICT services to government departments," Michael Vanderheide, CEO of CenITex, said in September.
"Opportunities have emerged, including cloud-based services, which offer potentially more cost-effective and responsive ways of delivering what CenITex currently provides."
In an investigation into CenITex by the Victorian Ombudsman a year ago, it was reported that the organisation was riddled with nepotism, favouritism, corruption, and bad leadership from top-level management, among other issues (PDF).
On top of this new job, Mailes will also maintain his roles as chair of the Victorian ICT Advisory Committee, deputy secretary of the Innovation, Services, Small Business and Technology Division within the Department of State Development, Business and Innovation, and chief technology advocate.
The Victorian government created the role of chief technology advocate in March this year, appointing former South Australia government CIO Mailes to the position.
"Mailes will initially focus on delivering better services, reducing waste, encouraging innovation, and improving ICT procurement across government," Rich-Phillips said at the time.