[LINK] Race is on for carbon offset work

[Bernard Robertson-Dunn]

<brd>
The story so far...

The Federal Government decided to review its procurement, so it did the 
Gershon review.

While the review was happening, all major/new IT projects were on hold 
until the Feds puts some of the Gershon recommendations in place.

Because of the hold, for the first half of Fin Year 2008/09 the rate of 
IT spend in Canberra has been well down on plan.

In the next month or so the hold will come off and departments will be 
panicking to spend at about twice the rate so far this Fin Year just to 
spend their budgets and meet their project deadlines.

Because there are limited IT resources in Canberra (and fewer now 
because of the hold) the spend rate will be restricted.

This means the government will find it difficult to meet its objectives. 
It will have to rush projects, which will cost more because resources 
will be scarce and/or have to be flown in.

In short ... SNAFU.

Now read on and have a laugh.

</brd>


Race is on for carbon offset work
Karen Dearne
January 20, 2009
The Australian IT
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,24934753-15306,00.html

AT least 20 new IT projects potentially worth millions of dollars are on 
the table as the Department of Climate Change prepares for online 
trading of emissions permits and establishes an environmental watchdog 
agency with responsibility for the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

Tenders for the CPRS auction platform and architecture, systems 
integration, financial management, identity/access, business 
intelligence systems, web portal design and hosting services will be 
announced as soon as this month.

"Our overall procurement strategy is still being developed, but the 
design and build will be co-ordinated within the department, using a 
range of suppliers," department spokeswoman Vicki Kapernick said. "The 
projects just listed on our procurement plan are an indication of the 
work likely to be undertaken in preparation for the establishment of the 
CPRS and the regulator."

The new agency, the Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority, will 
assess organisations' liability under the National Greenhouse and Energy 
Reporting Act, enforce compliance and manage the auction or allocation 
of permits, including collection of revenue.

The Kyoto-compliant national emissions registry completed just before 
Christmas represented the first phase of the CPRS system, Ms Kapernick said.

US-based environmental consultant Perrin Quarles Associates, along with 
local companies Strategic Data Management and AussieHQ, won a $600,000 
contract to supply the registry, which is linked to the UN International 
Transactions Log.

Countries signing up to the Kyoto Protocol are assigned a number of 
carbon emission units, and must set up a registry to track and record 
all trades.

Minister for Climate Change Penny Wong said having the trading registry 
operating "was an important milestone".

"We need these units to meet the target of limiting our average annual 
emissions over the period 2008-12 to 108 per cent of 1990 levels," 
Senator Wong said.

The registry will now be further developed to support the introduction 
of the CPRS by July 1 next year.

Ms Kapernick said a healthy response to the first tender indicated a 
number of companies were likely to bid for this work.

Some $37 million over four years was allocated for the creation of an 
emissions trading scheme in the last budget, but Ms Kapernick said the 
new projects related to the regulator's office, announced last month.

"Obviously, a lot of detail is yet to be worked out."

The department has to provide an IT infrastructure before the 
authority's establishment through passage of the scheme's enabling 
legislation.

Final costs for the scheme will be published in the 2009-10 federal budget.

Meanwhile, decisions on contracts for a call centre and future support 
of the department's main business interface, the Online System for 
Comprehensive Activity Reporting, are expected early this year.

Data from OSCAR and, eventually, the CPRS, will be fed into the National 
Greenhouse Energy Reporting System, which is being expanded to handle 
increased mandatory reporting.

Businesses can hope for a reduction in red tape, with the department 
developing standard approaches to energy data sets.

A spokeswoman for Senator Wong said industry reporting requirements were 
being considered by federal, state and territory governments, with some 
"positive outcomes" expected by mid-year.

"Streamlining federal programs has already commenced," she said. 
"Legislation under the Energy Efficiency Opportunities program has been 
aligned with the new NGERS. From July 1, corporations will only have to 
submit data once through a single IT reporting system to cover both 
reporting obligations."

-- 
 
Regards
brd

Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Canberra Australia
brd at iimetro.com.au