Govt CIO becomes part time job?

Rumours that Joe Harley, CIO at the DWP, is set to assume the responsibilities of the Government CIO as well as his current ones confirms earlier speculation that a major overhaul was planned for the role of UK Government CIO. 

Rumours around Whitehall have increasingly put Harley's name in the frame for the top CIO job, speculation reported earlier today by public sector blogger Tony Collins who added Harley will effectively add the government CIO job to his existing portfolio at the DWP. 

Late last year PublicTechnology.net reported that a review of the role of the Government CIO was underway following the resignation of John Suffolk from the post. Whitehall sources suggested that the Cabinet Office and most particularly Ian Watmore, former Government CIO and now Chief Operating Officer at the Efficiency and Reform Group, would assume some of the responsibilities of the role as practiced by Suffolk. 

Harley, Director General of Corporate IT and CIO at the DWP, is widely regarded as one of the most effective CIOs in Whitehall, having slashed £1.4 billon from DWP IT costs in the last five years and is known to be held in high esteem by Watmore, a factor that analysts speculated would be a key consideration in selecting any successor to Suffolk. 

While Harley's appointment remains unconfirmed for the moment, a decision not to replace Suffolk directly would be likely to open the Coalition to accusations that the role of Government CIO has become a part time one at a point when strong guidance over ICT's role in enabling recovery has never been greater. 

Harley's work at the DWP is also on the front line of the Coalition's political agenda as the planned benefits revolution of Iain Duncan Smith will not be possible without a major ICT deployment to underpin it. While resources and systems will be shared with HMRC, the ICT strategy of the DWP will be one of the most critical to the success or failure of the Coalition's ambitions. On top of that, the Chief Technology Officer at the DWP James Gardner announced this week that he was resigning and moving into the private sector. 

The topic of the Government CIO's role was raised at local government association Socitm's launch of its IT Trends survey. "The role of Government CIO is very important," said Socitm's Roger Marshall. "When you look at what's gone wrong with government IT and big project failures, one of the reasons has been the lack of a strong IT voice within departments themselves. Things have been run by consultants and outsourcing companies. I would like to see a strengthening of high level IT skills within government. Essential skills such as project management and consultancy should be available within departments and listened to."

If confirmed, Harley's appointment might be seen as "a pragmatic appointment that consolidates the DWP's influence over the Government's approach to IT", according to Dr Katy Ring of analyst firmK2 Advisory. "Many smaller government agencies and larger local authorities respect DWP's IT procurement policies and would like to be able to piggy-back on the centralised IT and shared services it runs. 

"While that is probably not workable, since the DWP is not set up to be an IT service provider, Harley's move into Government CIO role would be welcomed by many because he is someone who has good utility computing and shared service policy experience under his belt. In terms of G-Cloud development, the DWP's strong relationship with HP Enterprise Services will probably do HP no harm at all!"