New ATO division to de-risk major system transformations

The tax office has created a new division to manage risk around major ATO technology projects and system transformations, shuffling its deputy commissioner ranks in the process.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) unveiled a newly established department named Enterprise Risk, Change and Integration. 

Outgoing smarter data deputy commissioner Marek Rucinski will lead the new division.

An ATO spokesperson told iTnews that the division would "collaborate across enterprise-wide functions to strengthen organisational resilience, risk maturity, and change capability across the ATO”. 

It will also “enable change readiness for major ATO programs and system transformations”, according to the spokesperson, while strengthening the ATO’s ability to deliver “complex, technology-enabled change across systems, processes and people,” the spokesperson said.

The ATO flagged a number of transformation risks it hopes to mitigate in its 2024-2025 corporate report [pdf].

They include the need to keep up with the latest technologies, maximising the value of data and analytics, managing cyber security threats and the complexity of its end-to-end client and case management services.

Rucinski's prior role in the smarter data division, which manages governance of the agency's data and analytics, has been given to deputy commissioner Andrew Watson.

Watson has served with the ATO for nearly 36 years. 

“[Watson’s] ongoing stewardship will ensure continuity and maintain momentum as smarter data continues to support the APS’ ambition to harness data as a strategic asset and strengthen risk-informed decision-making across the service,” an ATO spokesperson told iTnews. 

The deputy commissioner shuffle follows a restructure of the ATO’s cloud operations. The office halved the size of its cloud team while expanding self-service AWS capabilities, while redeploying staff throughout the agency.  

The office is also actively trialling large multimodal AI models to help audit submitted documents.