Featured, News - Tuesday, July 26, 2011 17:00 - 0 Comments

HEAD HONCHO: Qld seeks CIO “champion”

For the second time in three years, the Queensland State Government has flagged plans to significantly enhance the powers of its whole of government chief information officer role, with Premier Anna Bligh today noting it would shortly start recruiting for a new executive to take on a drastically expanded brief.

Previously, the state has had a succession of chief information officers sitting within the Department of Public Works, with the role currently held by Mal Grierson, who was formerly also the department’s Director-General. It has previously been held by Alan Chapman and Peter Grant.

In July 2008, Queensland flagged plans to expand the office of the state CIO, with then-ICT Minister Robert Schwarten (who has since retired) and Bligh herself at the time noting that the CIO role needed more authority. However, the move didn’t stop a series of IT disasters from rocking the State Government over the succeeding years.

The most public of these has been the Queensland Health payroll debacle, which resulted in thousands of public sector health workers going without pay after the department’s upgrade to a new SAP-based payroll system was botched, but many of the state’s other major IT projects have also overrun their budget and been delayed.

Speaking to a joint luncheon in Brisbane today organised by the Australian Computer Society and the Australian Information Industry Association, Bligh revealed Queensland would shortly commence the hiring process for a new state CIO — and one with the level of authority traditionally accorded to the head of a government department.

“We have a resolve to strengthen and to elevate that role,” Bligh said. “What we’ll be doing is to create a Queensland Government CIO position and office.”

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