Government Shared Network to be discontinued.
Hon Tony Ryall
Minister of Health
Minister of
State Services
03 February Media Release
Government Shared Network to be discontinued.
State Services Minister Tony Ryall has announced the previous government's Government shared Network (GSN) is to be discontinued because it is financially unsustainable. Participating government agencies will be moved to a new provider in the private sector.
The Government Shared Network is a network linking government agencies with high speed internet and telecommunications services.
"The previous government wrote off $10.6 million from the GSN project in the 2007/2008 financial year. The project had been running at a considerable financial loss ever since it became operational in September 2007 – losing $700,000 per month. Despite that the previous government had planned to carry on with it," says Mr Ryall.
"This government has taken the earliest practical opportunity to begin shutting it down. It is not prepared to continue to underwrite significant losses under any economic climate," says Mr Ryall. "All public service agencies need to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and focus on high value and high performance programmes."
The State Services Commission will oversee a managed exit of government agencies from the GSN, working with existing users to put in place a single procurement process for a replacement provider. This will be done with the aim of minimising costs.
ENDS
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the Government
Shared Network?
The Government Shared Network is a secure
network linking government agencies with high speed internet
and telecommunication services. It comprises a fibre optic
network (which is currently accessible from the Auckland and
Wellington central business districts) as well as a wide
area network linking agency locations around New Zealand.
The Government Shared Network has been operational since
2007 and is currently used by sixteen agencies providing
connections to around 130 government offices.
2.
How many agencies are using the GSN?
16 agencies are
currently on the GSN.
3. Why was the GSN set up?
The
GSN was created to provide a secure telecommunications
network to help achieve collaboration between agencies for
data exchange, shared services and joint service
delivery.
4. Why was the State Services Commission
responsible for setting up the GSN?
There was no natural
‘home’ within the machinery of government for delivery
of cross-agency ICT services, therefore the previous
government instructed the State Services Commission (SSC)
to establish the services and make recommendations on the
most appropriate ongoing organisational form.
5.
What happens now?
The exit from GSN is expected to take
12 months. The SSC will work with existing users to put in
place a single procurement process for a replacement
provider. A managed transition off GSN is important to
ensure that services to current users are disrupted as
little as possible, and costs of transition are kept as low
as possible.