Feds decommission two ICT supplier lists

The Federal Government has culled two under-utilised lists of pre-vetted ICT suppliers and management consultants after an internal review painted them in an unfavourable light.

Applications to the multi-use lists (MUL) were suspended in late August while the review was undertaken.

The list of ICT management consultants pre-approved for government work expired on October 31 without being extended, while the other general-purpose list of ICT suppliers was culled.

MULs are typically not mandatory, and designed for government deals worth less than $80,000 a year.

The review of the lists included a survey, which garnered responses from 47 federal agencies and 218 suppliers from the lists.

"The review found that agencies' use of the two MULs is low, and suppliers consider the MULs provide little value," the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) noted in a blog post.

More than half of the agencies that responded either did not use MULs or didn't know if they had used the arrangements.

Only 43 percent of agencies surveyed indicated that had used one of the lists - equivalent to about 20 of the 47 agencies that responded.

Of the list users, about 15 indicated they either hadn't ended up sourcing services from a list, or they only used a list once a year or less.

Of the supplier respondents, only 37 percent were asked to quote for government work, and "of those, less than half indicated that they had actually received business as a result".