CIO out of AGD after just five months

Canberra IT executive Matthew Boyley has returned to the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science after just five months as CIO at the Attorney-General’s Department.

Matthew Boyley

Boyley won the AGD’s top tech role role in September, after the agency spent three months scouring the executive market for a permanent hire.

Industry’s general manager of the ICT development branch, Neil Kinsella, was made the acting CIO following Boyley’s departure.

Despite waiting until the end of a two-year hiring freeze - which blocked any agency recruitment from outside the public sector - to start its hunt for a permanent technology chief, the AGD kept to Canberra circles to make its hire.

The new job meant a higher-profile employer and a bigger customer base for Boyley.

But the CIO has now returned to the Industry department just five months later.

iTnews understands Boyley was lured back to Industry with the promise of an expanded and ambitious IT agenda, bolstered by a new cross-government focus.

The SES band 2 role will oversee Australia-wide delivery of IT services to Industry and its client agencies.

Former Family Court client services boss Stephen Andrew has now taken over the CIO role at AGD's.

A spokesperson for the department told iTnews Andrew worked his first day on 15 February 2016.

A former AFP officer, Andrew joined the Family Court’s national support office as its executive director for IT services in 2002, before being promoted to executive director of client services in 2011.

He will now take on the implementation of a national facial recognition system already started by the AGD, which won $18.5 million in federal government funding late last year and is scheduled to go live later in 2016.

It will be used to verify images on passports, visas and driver’s licences in an effort to stamp out fraud, but has raised concerns among senators, privacy advocates and even the ACT government for infringing on Australian privacy rights.