Northern Territory government to set up ICT advisory council

The Northern Territory government is establishing an ICT advisory council that will advise the government on ways to develop the NT IT industry.

“We want to grow our local ICT industry and explore new ways of doing business in this sector,” NT chief minister Adam Giles said in a statement.

“This council is designed to give feedback to government on barriers to local industry development and ways the government can be more strategic in its dealings with this industry, building capacity.”

The ICT advisory council will also look at how IT could improve efficiencies in the NT government. For example, members of the council will give technical advice on IT industry service standards and performance measures to ensure the NT government gets the “best value for money” from contracted services, he said.

In addition to setting up the council, the NT government is rolling out the first stages of its Asset Systems Network (ASNET) by 31 October, 2014.

ASNET is designed to manage the NT’s infrastructure assets including houses and highways.

“This transition [to ASNET] will begin at the end of the week and contingencies are in place to help agencies and contractors manage the switch-over,” said Giles.

“I am pleased to report that local ICT expertise has been used to implement this first phase of ASNET. This has seen a significant reduction in the fly-in fly-out contractors which were a regular feature of Labor’s failed $70 million Asset Management System [AMS],” he said.

According to Giles, the Country Liberal Party led government had to scrap the AMS in March 2014 despite “millions of taxpayer dollars” being spent on it.

According to a report by the lt;igt;ABClt;/igt;, the AMS had a starting budget of $7.2 million. When it was switched on in April 2012, it was two years late and already $12 million over budget.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

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