Funding

All funding decisions are made by the Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) of Cabinet based on the merit and risks of the project captured under existing NSW Government policies and frameworks. ERC is not bound to fund SDAs prioritised and endorsed under this Policy.

SDA Owners

Owners of Core and Common SDAs must secure funding the total cost of the asset for the period it is forecast to be needed. This includes project costs (seed and scale) and operational costs such as licensing, ICT infrastructure, and human resources for support and enhancement services. If an agency must transition onto or off (migrate) an SDA in a defined period driven by the SDA owner, the SDA owner must fund part or all the SDA user agency’s costs, as mutually agreed upon at the time of endorsing the SDA as Core or Common.  

SDA owners must include costs to remediate any high risks raised by the TDAG. DSIA will support priority SDA owners by identifying appropriate funding sources, including in situations where delivery costs have increased due to regulatory requirements from SDA users. This includes working proactively with the SDA owner to engage senior levels of government (IDLG, DTB, Secretaries and Ministers) to secure funding the total cost of the asset.

SDA Users

SDA users are accountable for securing funding needed to use an SDA. This includes upgrading legacy systems to enable integration to SDAs, organisational change management and training. If an agency must migrate to an SDA in a defined period driven by the SDA owner, the SDA owner must fund part or all the SDA user agency’s costs known at that point in time, as part of the SDA being endorsed as Core or Common. This funding is to be mutually agreed between SDA Owners and Users.  

SDA users’ inability to transition or use an SDA due to legacy systems and lack of funding will be highlighted by SDA owners as part of biannual reporting on agency adoption and risks. This will not automatically lead to funding but will raise awareness and highlight the dependencies needed to achieve broader benefits. SDA owners will support users in timing their adoption of the SDA.

Funding sources

The appropriate source of funding is dependent on the specific assets as some fall under different jurisdictions, legal frameworks, may have fixed known costs or high variability based on user behaviour (bushfires, floods, voting, budget cycles, etc.).

Funding sources include but are not limited to consolidated funding, Digital Restart Fund (DRF), cost recovery models, Commonwealth Government grants, and reprioritisation of existing funding. Standard funding and consumption models will be made available to all SDA owners as they are developed.