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The Digital Transformation Agency will look to move towards a more “structured and mature” approach to managing digital investments, though it still faces challenges in aligning all projects with government standards and meeting proposal review deadlines, according to its corporate plan for 2024-2025.
The Agency said that it would be committed to reducing the outsourcing of its core work in line with the APS Strategic Commissioning Framework.
As part of its revised approach, the agency has “simplified” its approach to measuring the satisfaction of buyers and sellers participating in the DTA’s marketplace (BuyICT) to better reflect the effectiveness of these efforts.
“We are committed to managing risk and identifying opportunities to ensure we achieve our strategic objectives,” the DTA said. “Effective risk management is crucial to balancing controls, mitigation strategies and delivering outcomes efficiently.”
While the BuyICT platform and government-wide arrangements are focused on delivering value for buyers and sellers, the DTA will define and track this value through research and feedback.
This includes pre-negotiating terms and contracting templates to help buyers and sellers put the right protections in place.
“Our focus is on streamlining the procurement process and leveraging government buying power to maximise benefits for both the Australian government and the digital industry,” the DTA stated.
This strategy would further improve the way Australian businesses participate in the Australian government procurement market, particularly small to medium enterprises.
According to the DTA in its Annual Report, 2023-24, the use of whole-of-government arrangements increased by 7 per cent this financial year.
The Agency undertook a number of initiatives to improve its panel arrangements during this period, including onboarding 38 new sellers to the Software marketplace panel in September 2023.
The DTA also published 200 contracts and amendments above $10,000 on AusTender, with 86 per cent of these reported within 42 calendar days or less, compared to 81 per cent in 2022-23.
“Of the 29 contracts and amendments not reported within 42 days, the majority were reported within 91 days, with only five instances outside of 91 days,” the Agency said.
The DTA also said that publishing on AusTender would ensure the information is available to industry, including SMEs, while simplifying business interactions with the government online.”
This was in line with its proactive support of small business participation the local procurement market, the Agency added.
“Statistics on SMEs and small enterprise participation are available on the Department of Finance’s website,” the DTA said.
“Our procurement practices support SMEs by adopting whole-of-government solutions to simplify interactions, which includes using the standardised Commonwealth Contracting Suite for low-risk procurements valued under $200,000.”
The report also said during the period, the Agency recorded an operating surplus of $21.7 million, attributed to savings from whole-of-government ICT procurement, revenue from other Commonwealth agencies and a minor budget underspend.
This compares to a surplus of $28.2 million in 2022–23, driven by similar factors.
The DTA’s management of the ICT Coordinated Procurement Special Account has had a significant impact on its balance sheet, with $339.6 million of the Agency’s $416.4 million in assets and $268.3 million of its $300.2 million in liabilities associated with this account.
During the 2023-24 financial year, the DTA claimed it had “delivered substantial savings” and “efficiencies” through its panels and arrangements, including an estimated return of $6.4 million to the consolidated revenue fund.
“These efforts ensured that our procurement arrangements continued to provide value for money to the government by reducing costs and enhancing operational efficiencies,” the Agency said. “The total value of contracts under marketplaces and panels remained over $5 billion.”
In 2023–24, the DTA entered into 96 new non-consultancy contracts, with total expenditure amounting to $7,652,561.90 (inclusive of GST).
These non-consultancy contracts were for software licenses, change management advice and delivery and contracted labour-hire staff.
During the previous reporting period, 91 ongoing reportable non-consultancy contracts were entered into, with an actual expenditure of $11,268,733.81 (inclusive of GST).