Damon Rees, the former chief executive of Service NSW, has been appointed to lead the review of the federal government’s late and over-budget modernising business registers (MBR) project.
The review was launched earlier this month by deputy treasurer Stephen Jones.
At the time, Jones said the review would “deliver a comprehensive understanding of the current state of the program and provide recommendations for changes, improvements and strategies to best position it to achieve its intended objectives.”
The project to replace 31 registers, including the 30-year-old Australian Business Register, has cost more than $650 million so far, and is expected to top $1.5 billion before it’s done.
Announcing Rees’ appointment to the MBR project, Jones said he will be supported by a secretariat comprising staff from Treasury, the DTA, and other agencies.
The report is due at the end of June.
The announcement also includes the finalised terms of reference for the review.
The terms of reference note that to complete the MBR project, it may be necessary to revise its scope.
The review will also work to validate the current estimated costs of the project.
When he stepped down from Service NSW in November 2022, Rees had been been the NSW government’s digital leader for five years.
He most recently oversaw the agency’s delivery of the NSW digital driver’s licence.
Prior to that, he became the NSW government’s first chief information and digital officer, after a private sector career that included acting CIO for Woolworths and CDO for Macquarie Group.