Queensland restructures CIO team

The Queensland Department of Public Works has split its Government Chief Information Office (QGCIO) into three offices in a bid to improve service delivery.

The restructure comes more than two years after QGCIO executive director Peter Grant resigned. Alan Chapman has filled his role in an acting capacity since.

Effective 1 July, the state government's ICT operations will be jointly overseen by three groups: the ICT Policy and Co-ordination Office; Public Sector ICT Development Office; and Telecommunications, Broadband and Digital Economy Coordination Office.

Chapman has been appointed executive director of the ICT Policy and Co-ordination Office, responsible for developing whole-of-Government ICT policies.

The Public Sector ICT Development Office, led by former Department of Community Safety CIO Terry Beitz, will focus on stakeholder engagement and helping agencies develop their workforce and implement policies and frameworks.

The third office was established in February, is focussed on the state's telecommunications strategic direction, and has former Queensland Rail CIO Dallas Stower as its executive director.

Chapman, Beitz and Stower will report to the Department of Public Works Associate Director-General Natalie MacDonald, who leads the department's ICT division.

A departmental spokesman told iTnews that the restructure aimed to better support the state's five-year ICT strategy, which was announced in September 2009.

The 'Toward Q2 through ICT' strategy is expected to double the number of government services available online by 2012, and decrease the cost of business-as-usual ICT by 15 percent by 2013.

"The Department of Public Works will provide greater focus for the delivery of the strategy and will enhance government's ability to engage with industry to deliver solutions based outcomes," the spokesman said.

No positions were lost in the restructure, she said.