[anitil]

In much (all?) of Australia all government tenders have to be publicly advertised so this is something you could definitely look in to if you were interested. In particular, Victoria's listing is at : https://www.tenders.vic.gov.au/tenders/index.do

[ecdavis]

I read an interesting article earlier today about IT spending in Australia: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-28/federal-governments-$1...

> It found public servants were too afraid to make major changes to IT procurement and were not talking with other departments to avoid duplication.

> "A fear of external scrutiny of decisions — such as through Senate estimates and audits — leads to a low-risk appetite and a culture where it is 'not OK to fail'," the report said.

> "This means that old and familiar ICT solutions are preferred to newer and more innovative, but perceivably riskier, solutions."

Nobody in the APS gets fired for hiring IBM, and nobody in IBM gets fired for screwing up major government projects. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-25/turning-router-off-and...

[anitil]

While I agree, Aus has also had some success with IT projects.

Many federal projects are now under a single sign on portal that works very well. Our taxes take less than an hour to fill out as most details are pre-filled.

And speaking for NSW, the RTA/RMS/Whatever-they're-called-these-days (our equivalent to the DMV for US readers) is almost fully functional without an in-person visit.