Department of Finance to rebuild two-year-old IT system

A computer system put in place at the Department of Finance just ahead of the 2014-15 federal budget will soon be replaced, with the department citing "usability issues". Expressions of interest (EOI) for the new "pre-budget system" are already in circulation, with the closing date less than four days away. It is expected after the EOI closes that a tender will surface early next year, with the full rollout of the winning system pencilled in for early 2018. Documents produced for potential tenderers as part of the EOI said that the existing system, which is only a few years old, "has some usability issues which are reducing the efficiency for staff interacting with the system". The new pre-budget system will be expected to handle documents and other information, from the initial step of costing a new policy proposal and assessing its impact on the budget bottom line, through to the finalised budget papers.