The federal government won't be creating a new agency to buy electronic hardware for federal workers, electing instead to give the job to the IT super-agency it officially created last year.
Government documents posted online Wednesday show that the Conservatives have given Shared Services Canada the mandate to buy end-user hardware and software for workers in the 43 federal agencies it serves, along with a handful of parliamentary watchdogs and other federal agencies. In all, Shared Services Canada will be in charge of buying end-user devices such as laptops and mobile devices, and software, including security software, for 106 federal organizations.
The government spends about $138 million on software purchases annually and the change to one procurement agency is expected to save federal coffers $8.7 mil-lion annually starting in the 2014-15 fiscal year.
"The government of Canada is implementing an enterprise approach to the procurement of end-user devices and related software, including security software, for federal employees," Shared Services Canada said on its website Friday. "This is a new area of standardization and consolidation that will bring efficiencies and savings while strengthening the security of government information technology."
The federal budget in late March said that the government wanted to have one agency buy end-user hardware for departments, putting an end to the standing orders each department had to fulfil individual needs.
However, the budget suggested the Conservatives were considering creating a brand new agency, or giving the responsibility to an existing organization.
"By moving away from each department independently managing these activities, there are opportunities to drive economies of scale, achieve savings for taxpayers and improve services," the budget reads. "Moving forward, the government will explore further whole-of-government approaches to reduce costs in the area of procurement of end-user devices and associated support services."
Under the cabinet-approved change, the end-user procurement unit will move into Shared Services Canada, taking away part of the procurement responsibilities for Public Works and Government Services Canada, which negotiates bulk purchases of a variety of goods for government departments, including the Canadian Forces.
It's an added responsibility for Shared Services Canada, which is already overseeing the consolidation of data centres from more than 200 down to about 30, and consolidating 63 email systems into one shared system by 2015.
Currently, four companies are being considered for the work: Bell Canada, Dell Canada, HP Canada and IBM Canada. The four have until April 9 to submit their proposals for the work.
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Quelle/Source: Ottawa Citizen, 10.04.2013
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