Gershon-led savings to the tune of $230 million will be divvied up among 20 Federal Government agencies to fund 44 new ICT projects.
Last week as part of the Budget announcement, the Federal Government said three programs would receive funding as a result of money saved from business as usual (BAU) changes coming off the back of the Gershon Review.
However, Minister for Finance and Deregulation Lindsay Tanner, now says the money from the BAU reinvestment fund, which was flagged as being available as early as last August, would go to a wider range of projects.
“The efficiency gains from these 44 projects will generate further savings of an estimated $78.9 million over four years and $23.9 million annually beyond the forward estimates,” Tanner said in a statement.
The government forecast an additional $271.1 million over the next three years would be available for other projects.
Earlier this year, Tanner also claimed "savings of close to $430 million [had been] identified between 2010-11 and 2012-13" and the government was on track to achieving its goal of $1 billion in savings over four years.
As part of the Budget the government outlined funding for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) ePassport system ($108.8 million), a Central Budget Management System (CBMS) in the Department of Finance and Deregulation (value not provided), and a whole-of-government data centre strategy ($11.9 million) that was announced in March.
The additional 41 projects include: Centrelink server virtualisation and the development of the Human Services portfolio common system; nine separate Customs and Border Protection Service projects including for mainframe opitimisation; new data centres for ASIC; and additional storage for Geoscience Australia to name a few.
More information on the projects can be found on the AGIMO website