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    • Blog, Enterprise IT, Featured - Written by on Thursday, December 13, 2012 14:17 - 7 Comments

    Qld sets royal commission into Health payroll

    Tags: , , , , , , ,

    blog It’s time. One of Australia’s greatest ever IT disasters is now going to have the *ahem* privilege of having a royal commission conducted into how precisely it went wrong. Queensland’s LNP Premier Campbell Newman made the announcement this morning, flanked by Health Minister Lawrence Springborg and Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Jarrod Bleijie. Sounds like it’s going to be quite a show. The media release:

    “The Newman Government will establish a Commission of Inquiry with the powers of a Royal Commission to examine and report on the implementation of the Queensland Health Payroll system.

    Premier Campbell Newman said the Government was committed to getting to the bottom of the former Labor Government’s failed health payroll system implementation, which is estimated to cost Queensland taxpayers at least $1.25 billion.

    “The aim of this Inquiry is to establish the facts of what occurred, particularly given the significant ongoing costs to Queensland taxpayers for years to come,” Mr Newman said. “The Inquiry will commence on 1 February 2013 and will fully examine the implementation of the Health Payroll and may be used to assist with the potential recovery of losses from any external party.”

    Health Minister Lawrence Springborg welcomed the Inquiry as a way to establish the facts around the payroll debacle. “We need to ensure this never happens again; we need to find what went wrong and why; we need to find out who is responsible and if there is any chance of recovering hundreds of millions of dollars lost to the health system; and we need to ensure those who have lost their jobs as a result of Labor’s payroll debacle get the answers they deserve,” he said.

    While there have been a number of internal and external reviews, questions remain about the integrity of the process and the Newman Government believes these matters need to be addressed.

    Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Jarrod Bleijie announced the appointment of Hon. Richard Chesterman QC as the Commissioner. “Mr Chesterman served the people of Queensland for 14 years as a judge of the Court of Appeal,” Mr Bleijie said. “When he retired from the bench earlier this year, he left a legacy of judicial work which was seen as testament to his craftsmanship. Mr Chesterman is the right person for this job and the Government has every confidence his recommendations will help prevent a situation like this happening again.”

    The Commission has been directed to:

    • Assess the adequacy and integrity of the procurement, contract management, project management, governance and implementation process
    • Consider and report on whether any laws, contractual provisions, codes of conduct or other government standards may have been breached during the procurement and/or implementation process and identify who may be accountable
    • Analyse the contractual arrangements between the State of Queensland and IBM Australia Ltd and determine why and to what extend the contract prices of the Queensland Health Payroll system increased over time, and
    • Recommend any changes to existing procurement, contract and project management (including governance) policies, processes, standards and contractual arrangements for major Queensland Government information and communication technology projects initiated in the future to ensure the delivery of high quality and cost effective products and systems

    Under the Terms of Reference, the Commissioner is required to provide a detailed report containing his findings and recommendations to the Premier by 30 April 2013.

    The Queensland Government committed in its First 100 Days Action Plan to start a full audit of the QH payroll to determine current errors and faults. The KPMG Report identified significant failings within the system’s implementation and operation. At least $1.253 billion will be needed to fix the system.

    Related posts:

    1. Qld may hold Royal Commission into payroll bungle
    2. Qld Health payroll: The lawsuit may be back on
    3. Qld may ditch $1.2bn Health payroll project,
      start again
    4. “Abomination”: Qld Health payroll needs $837m more
    5. Qld Health payroll fix may cost $440m
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    7 Comments

    You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

    1. Steve Hodgkinson, Research Director IT Asia/Pacific, Ovum
      Posted 13/12/2012 at 4:43 pm | Permalink | Reply

      Strewth! This truly is a gift that keeps on giving …

    2. jingo
      Posted 14/12/2012 at 4:58 am | Permalink | Reply

      Another inquiry? Next thing there’ll be an inquiry into the number of inquiries…

      • seven_tech
        Posted 14/12/2012 at 9:40 am | Permalink | Reply

        No no, there will be a committee setup, to setup an inquiry into whether the inquiry of the committee in charge of the inquiry of the Health Payroll IT implementation is, in fact, qualified to inquire.

        There will then be an inquiry setup to determine if this was the best use of resources for that inquiry.

        • PeterA
          Posted 14/12/2012 at 11:31 am | Permalink | Reply

          And an additional committee to lead an inquiry into the feasibility and cost effectiveness of the results of all the above, who will make recommendations to an oversight committee for what they should recommend be passed on to the cabinet committee.

    3. Annoying Old Fart
      Posted 15/12/2012 at 11:33 am | Permalink | Reply

      Yes, very funny, and no doubt an element of truth. I presume everyone here has heard the political adage “never set up an inquiry until you know the result” Leaving aside the establishment of a legal framework for trying to recover some of the money wasted, and diverting the public from realising that this debacle isn’t fixed and won’t be for years, the result of the inquiry is clear: it’s all the fault of the previous government. Just like everything else. We’ll be stuck with Can-Dig Newman and his robot army for a decade or more, then the stench of corruption and incompetence will force the voters to… re-elect the other bunch of idiots! Queenslanders don’t deserve better. Queensland, the Smarting State.

    4. Duke
      Posted 18/12/2012 at 1:10 am | Permalink | Reply

      ah yes, that little clown who wanted to put the fast broadband tubes into the sewers strikes again… now, remind me, wtf else has he done except rather amusingly create the single largest disapproval ratings in the shortest time in political history?

    5. TechinBris
      Posted 19/12/2012 at 2:00 pm | Permalink | Reply

      Oooohh! Xmas halt with a lovely pic of my home city on the home page! Thank you Renai!
      We’ll just ignore the Can’t, Campbell.
      Happy Silly season to you. May the FSM bless you with many parties, as he is want to do.
      :{Þ~~~

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