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The B.C. provincial government has found itself a white knight (or possibly hatchet man) to slay the Beast that wouldn't die: BC Systems Corp. This is the second time in its history that the crown corporation has been on the chopping block.
BC Systems' man in white is the recently appointed CIO Joe Surich, who will make a recommendation to cabinet on the fate of BC Systems in a report to be submitted by the end of December 1995. Surich works at the Information and Technology Access Office (ITAO), created last August. ITAO is charged with the leadership of a number of information systems-related initiatives being considered by the province of BC. Restricted by mandate to no more than 30 employees, this small agency will focus on government information technology policy and "deal making." One of the initiatives is the possible privatization of the alternately loved and hated BC Systems.
Set up in 1977 to provide centralized IS services to the various branches of the provincial government, BC Systems has been criticized within the computer and telecommunications industries in B.C. for using public funds to compete with private industry for government projects.
This concern is at the root of the ITAO's efforts. One of its primary objectives is to stimulate the B.C. economy by promoting the spending of public IS funds in the private sector. In fact ITAO's first official recommendation was that BC Systems discontinue all of the entrepreneurial ventures in which it was currently engaged. Most pointedly, the corporation was restricted from offering non-government users access to its province-wide Internet infrastructure.
The second recommendation was to roll any BC Systems staff seconded under contract to the provincial government into the staff of the department for which they were working.
ITAO's second major initiative is the...