The NSW government has shelled out more than $1.4 million in taxpayer funds to consolidate data centres, even as there is no savings estimate.

According to the state opposition, the lack of planning and poor project management, which had damaged the data centre reform program, did not surprise them.

The NSW government aims to combine 130 data centres into two sites over a 10 year period.

A request for tender was originally scheduled for the first quarter following an expression of interest exercise on December 1, 2009. The state, however, consequently kept silent leading companies to question if the project would be derailed like the now-dead CBD Metro.

At the onset of this month, the government finally confirmed shortlisted suppliers, although it still declined to announce when the actual tender process will start.

The project has been impacted by delays, primarily due to debates between Treasury and other agencies on who would shoulder the migration expenses.
The dispute gave rise to another business case.

Department of Services, Technology and Administration data from February indicate $1.42m has been set for the data centre project.

When demanded for details of the expenses, a department spokesman only said, "The data centre reform budget covers costs associated with managing the program."

The figure was disclosed in papers acquired by the opposition under freedom of information rules.

The department spokesman admitted the state did not have estimates on how much the data centre plan would save.

"The government has not detailed anticipated savings. However, projections in other jurisdictions indicate the savings could be considerable over a number of years," the spokesman said.

"Defence anticipated data consolidation savings of around $417m over 10 years, while the (federal) Department of Finance has said it could avoid costs of around $1 billion more over 15 years by adopting a consolidated approach."