Information and communications technology (ICT) has become integral to how governments manage information and deliver services. This steadily increasing reliance on ICT is reflected in the Victorian Government's significant $3 billion annual ICT investment across the public sector, as reported by VAGO in its April 2015 report Digital Dashboard: Status Review of ICT Projects and Initiatives – Phase 1
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Dr Peter Frost Acting Auditor-General |
Audit team Karen Phillips—Engagement Leader Elsie Alcordo—Team Leader Kate Day—Senior Analyst Engagement Quality Control Reviewer Tony Brown |
Ordered to be published
VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT PRINTER March 2016
PP No 146, Session 2014–16
Dear Presiding Officers
In accordance with section 16(3) of the Audit Act 1994, a copy of this report, or part of this report, was provided to the Department of Premier & Cabinet, the Department of Treasury & Finance, the Department of Health & Human Services, the Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, the Department of Justice & Regulation, the State Revenue Office and the Public Record Office Victoria.
Information is recognised as a valuable asset:
Formative (~) Information management is reactive.
There is an absence of an agency-wide information management strategy, senior level support and adequate governance structures. Policies and procedures are incomplete with decisions being made locally and improvements are generally driven by reactions to adverse events.
In development (✔) Information management is basic and partial.
Government's response to the 2009 parliamentary Inquiry into Improving Access to Victorian Public Sector Information and Data recognised the need for a strong, appropriately authorised, whole-of-government governance approach if agencies were to achieve the type of transformation envisaged.
This Part examines how well whole-of-government leadership and oversight have supported improvements in providing public access to public sector information (PSI).
This part examines information management (IM) practices in a sample of agencies and rates agencies' maturity using the Victorian IM better practice principles and standards.
None of the sampled agencies had fully established practices consistent with the better practice principles and standards.
A critical component of providing the public with access to the public sector information (PSI) that agencies hold is communicating what PSI is held and if and how a member of the public can access this information. This Part discusses how well agencies facilitate public access to PSI.