Shake-up for senior government IT jobs

The government is heading for a major changeover of officials in charge of public sector IT.

The role of Head of e-Government, the equivalent of a chief information officer for government, was advertised in The Sunday Times on 29 February.

This post will replace that of the e-Envoy as a champion for public sector IT. The contract of the current e-Envoy, Andrew Pinder, is due to finish at the end of April.

In order to attract quality applicants the government needs to demonstrate that it would back them to make tough decisions, according to government IT expert Jim Norton.

"There should not be a shortage of takers, but it will depend on the salary," said Nick Kalisperas, public sector spokesman at industry group Intellect.

April will also see the retirement of Sir Peter Gershon, chief executive of the Office of Government Commerce, which oversees central government IT purchases.

Both positions could be filled by candidates from the private sector; last week, Prime Minister Tony Blair told senior civil servants that top jobs require specialised skills.

"In future the key roles in finance, IT and human resources will be filled by people with a demonstrable professional track record in tackling major organisational change, whether inside or outside the [Civil] Service," he said.

"The talented amateur is simply not equipped for these complex, specialised tasks."