blog Things are not going well for the Queensland Government in its lawsuit against IBM over the incredibly botched payroll systems upgrade project at Queensland Health.
First the judge in the case threw the case out of court in December last year, pointing out that the Government had signed a waiver of liability over the issue (a fact that even sites like Delimiter have been pointing out to the Queensland Government repeatedly), and now that same court will force the Queensland Government to pay Big Blue’s court costs on the issue. The Australian newspaper tells us (we recommend you click here for the full article):
“… the government argued IBM had misrepresented its credentials for delivering the system … But the claim was unsuccessful and Justice Glenn Martin on Monday ordered the State of Queensland pay IBM costs incurred by the proceedings on an indemnity basis.”
At this point the causes of the Queensland Health payroll systems debacle are quite well-documented. Although IBM is not entirely blameless for the problems, the vast majority of the responsibility for the project failure lies with the Queensland Government itself.
Here, as in so many other cases to do with the public sector, the main issue related to project governance.
My recommendation to the Queensland Government at this point is to cut its losses and walk away from this situation with as much dignity as it can muster. Queensland needs to start allowing IBM to tender for contracts again and stop attempting to sue Big Blue. There is just not much else that can be done.
Image credit: Patrick, Creative Commons
“…now that same court will force Big Blue to pay the Queensland Government’s court costs on the issue”
The other way around, surely? “Justice Glenn Martin on Monday ordered the State of Queensland pay IBM costs incurred by the proceedings on an indemnity basis.”
Ah yes, sorry — will fix.
How much are the costs?
“… the main issue related to project governance.”
Before I open my mouth too far, it’s worth noting I’m not a great fan of privatisation.
However, I can surf far and wide in the private sector and my preferred browser–Kmeleon– is always welcome, things don’t break. But the public sector… Oh dear dear dear. It is… unusual… to have a trouble-free experience in the public sector, mostly because they code only for IE/(Google)Chrome/FF. Anything outside this blinkered approach will enter at the surfers’ risk. We should note here that KM is a Gecko-based Windows API-driven browser, sort of like IE with a Gecko engine. Iron also has troubles in the public sector, but that’s a Chrome variant so probably doomed anyway.
I remain to be convinced that any Oz public sector can do much more than “Hello World!”
The moral of this tale is that if what passes for IT cannot design a good solid website accessible to all browsers, then what hope do they have in cobbling together a complex {name your database here} with end-to-end secure input and data integrity?
Sloppy reporting by The Australian, at least. The Australian article does state that ‘the government argued IBM had misrepresented its credentials for delivering the system … But the claim was unsuccessful’. This claim was never tested – the court proceedings were thrown out because the Government was unsuccessful in arguing that the settlement agreement it entered into back in 2011 did not effectively release IBM from liability for those (alleged) misrepresentations. The claim about misrepresentations (or any other IBM conduct) was never tested in court – for better or worse.
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