Post by Willow on Feb 4, 2013 21:41:58 GMT 9.5
Queensland Health payroll bungle 'had real human consquences'
BY:SARAH ELKS From: The Australian February 02, 2013 12:00AM
This story strikes fear into the heart of Health IT workers! I shall be watching this with a great deal of interest
IBM must deliver its current and former staff for public questioning and may be forced to reveal confidential business documents to an inquiry into the billion-dollar failure of the Queensland Health payroll system it designed.
Opening the $5 million commission of inquiry yesterday, retired judge Richard Chesterman QC said the bungled rollout led to tens of thousands of government workers being underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all, with some left "temporarily destitute" or "falsely accused of fraud".
The royal commission-style inquiry was set up by Premier Campbell Newman in December to discover what went wrong, why, and who is to blame for the $1.25 billion debacle.
Its proceedings and findings, due in April, are expected to be keenly watched at home and abroad, to guide the drafting of future large information technology contracts.
Mr Chesterman said the background to the situation was "notorious". The original contract price for delivery of the new payroll system by IBM to the government was $6.19m, but by the time it went live in March 2010 the amount paid to the company was more than $37m.
On top of that, the government's own costs to get it up and running were a further $64m.
Last May, independent auditor KPMG reviewed the project and found the government had incurred operating costs of $400m and it would cost a further $836m to make the system work for another five years.
"The system, which was meant to be efficient, economical and largely automated, required more than 1000 payroll employees to perform about 200,000 manual operations and to process 92,000 forms every fortnight," Mr Chesterman said.
"The inquiry is to determine why such large amounts of money have been lost to the public, whether anything might be recovered; and why such distress was inflicted on the Queensland Health workforce."
He would also examine whether any laws had been broken, and by whom.
The inquiry heard IBM would be expected to hand over documents on the tender process, the contract and its implementation, and make current and former staff available to testify.
Counsel assisting the commission Peter Flanagan SC said the system's failure "had real and ongoing human consequences for many staff of Queensland Health", but the human impact was not part of the inquiry.
The inquiry was adjourned to a date to be fixed.
BY:SARAH ELKS From: The Australian February 02, 2013 12:00AM
This story strikes fear into the heart of Health IT workers! I shall be watching this with a great deal of interest
IBM must deliver its current and former staff for public questioning and may be forced to reveal confidential business documents to an inquiry into the billion-dollar failure of the Queensland Health payroll system it designed.
Opening the $5 million commission of inquiry yesterday, retired judge Richard Chesterman QC said the bungled rollout led to tens of thousands of government workers being underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all, with some left "temporarily destitute" or "falsely accused of fraud".
The royal commission-style inquiry was set up by Premier Campbell Newman in December to discover what went wrong, why, and who is to blame for the $1.25 billion debacle.
Its proceedings and findings, due in April, are expected to be keenly watched at home and abroad, to guide the drafting of future large information technology contracts.
Mr Chesterman said the background to the situation was "notorious". The original contract price for delivery of the new payroll system by IBM to the government was $6.19m, but by the time it went live in March 2010 the amount paid to the company was more than $37m.
On top of that, the government's own costs to get it up and running were a further $64m.
Last May, independent auditor KPMG reviewed the project and found the government had incurred operating costs of $400m and it would cost a further $836m to make the system work for another five years.
"The system, which was meant to be efficient, economical and largely automated, required more than 1000 payroll employees to perform about 200,000 manual operations and to process 92,000 forms every fortnight," Mr Chesterman said.
"The inquiry is to determine why such large amounts of money have been lost to the public, whether anything might be recovered; and why such distress was inflicted on the Queensland Health workforce."
He would also examine whether any laws had been broken, and by whom.
The inquiry heard IBM would be expected to hand over documents on the tender process, the contract and its implementation, and make current and former staff available to testify.
Counsel assisting the commission Peter Flanagan SC said the system's failure "had real and ongoing human consequences for many staff of Queensland Health", but the human impact was not part of the inquiry.
The inquiry was adjourned to a date to be fixed.