Digital revamp of government services not effective review finds

A new review has found a digital revamp of government services is not as effective as it should be and a reset is being signalled.

Access to public services is increasingly digital and online, and agencies are poised to spend billions of dollars on new systems including AI, even as some high-profile IT projects come unstuck.

The government has said it could save almost $6 billion in the next 10 years by centralising investment and agencies sharing IT.

But the review for the Public Service Commission says investment so far is fragmented, with duplication and limited coordination.

It says the key Digital Delivery Agency has "limited influence" over key decisions on funding, design and procurement.

Commissioner Sir Brian Roche released the report on Thursday saying it provides a solid base for a reset.

Between August 2025 and February 2026 Cabinet made a series of decisions aimed at reducing the cost of digital in government, said the report.

"The public service had a history of waste, duplication, and poor delivery on technology projects" was Cabinet's view, it said.

It set up the Digital Delivery Agency, and the new report focused on how that was working out and what the agency should do now.

The task is to fix a public system the report said was:

poorly informed

has poor coordination

is not playing its critical part in giving agencies expert support

The agency said it was "... all at a time of fiscal constraint, greater public expectations and remarkable change in foundational tech capabilities such as AI".

Also, patchy engagement with tech providers was not supporting long-term partnerships and leadership was lacking.

IRD had cracked it with its digital revamp - it cost over a billion dollars - but others had not, the report noted.

It recommended a three-prong reset of priorities to the highest-impact projects, of the Delivery Agency as strategist, expert and a broker with private companies and of the wider system.

Roche said the reset could build on what the delivery agency had done so far.

"We need the Government Digital Delivery Agency to be fit for purpose because it has an integral role in the work we are doing to transform the Public Service, and the broader service delivery model."

Agencies have staggered through expensive tech overhauls recently or come completely unstuck, such as with MBIE's biometrics project that sparked investigations into claims MPs were misled, and an earlier messed-up births, deaths and marriages IT overhaul at Internal Affairs.