Growing ACCC needs a CIO

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has created a new chief information officer position in light of rapid growth, and is seeking a candidate to take up the role.

The Australian government organisation responsible for ensuring compliance with the Trade Practices Act 1974, the ACCC has sought to reign in large IT firms including Telstra and Google. The current ACCC CEO is Brian Cassidy.

According to ACCC CFO Adrian Brocklehurst, the creation of the CIO position reflected rapid growth in the organisation. "We're going from two corporate branches to three, so it's a direct function of growth, we need that more formalised and managed IT capability," he said.

"At the moment we have our information and IT arrangements held under our two corporate branches, so we have web under one team in our corporate area, IT in another area." The ACCC's current head of IT is Rudi Irgang.

Brocklehurst said the ACCC had grown by 75 per cent in the last two years: "We had a budget a couple of years ago of around 80 million. Our budget now is about 140 million." Brocklehurst added the ACCC currently had between 600 and 700 staff.

Up until January this year, the ACCC held contacted systems integrators ASG. However after tender the ACCC chose new contractors Getronics (now owned by UXC) for a three-year contact.

The new CIO position seeks a senior IT executive who has had previous experience in industry regulation or law enforcement. The position offers a $170,000 remuneration package plus bonuses, and applications must be lodged online before 1 December. The position is based in Canberra.