The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has launched a new webpage to deliver greater insights into where Government is spending money and what it’s spending it on.
General Manager for Digital Investment Advice and Sourcing at DTA, Wayne Poels said the new Report and Insights page on the Agency’s BuyICT website provided insights into whole-of-government ICT procurement.
Mr Poels said the new page was more than just a simple data transparency exercise.
“Agencies can now see the trends, and potential shortfalls, in their procurement practices,” Mr Poels said
“We will work with them on this to identify if there are capability gaps that we can address, or if we need to advocate for policy change more broadly,” he said.
“With the page updated monthly, anyone can explore current data relating to the DTA’s cloud, digital services, hardware, software and telecommunications marketplaces.
Mr Poels said the Agency was are seeing some encouraging trends in this data, with the number of opportunities going through the marketplaces more than doubling and the number of sellers tripling since 2019.
He said of the of the $17.47 billion spent through the marketplaces to date, more than 44 per cent had gone to small-to-medium enterprises and more than two per cent to Indigenous-owned businesses – both exceeding current Government procurement targets.
“But there is still work to do to improve competitive procurement practices,” the General Manager said.
“We can clearly see that Government needs to take steps to improve competition, with 35 per cent of opportunities still going out to a single seller,” he said.
“While the DTA cannot direct Agencies on their procurement decisions, we will use this data in our engagements with buyers to encourage more competitive practices when approaching the market.”
Mr Poels the new page completed the DTA’s migration of the Digital Marketplace to BuyICT.gov.au.
The DTA’s Report and Insights webpage can be accessed at this PS News link.
