Wednesday, 30th September 2020
Another day and another Auditor-General report into the wasteful spending and economic mismanagement by the Palaszczuk Labor Government.
LNP Shadow Minister Innovation and Digital Economy Michael Hart said today’s report shone a light on more IT project blowouts and followed the damning S/4HANA report last week.
As the Auditor-General notes in his report, “the Queensland Government’s financial performance has reduced, with expenses increasing at a greater rate than revenue. The current economic climate makes it more important than ever to ensure that the significant money invested in technology projects delivers value for the community.”
“Labor has a track record of wasteful spending and wrong priorities,” Mr Hart said.
“Every dollar Labor wastes is taxpayers’ money that can’t be spent on job-creating infrastructure to build a stronger economy.
“Wasting money on health IT projects, means less money on better health services for patients.
“Wasting money on failed training projects, means less money to support skills development and jobs.
“Wasting money on SPER projects, means more Labor job-destroying taxes.
“COVID has shown the benefits of using technology and we can’t afford to get it wrong.
“The LNP has already announced a plan to rein in Labor’s wasteful spending on IT projects, based on recommendations from a previous Auditor-General report.
“We will build a firewall that ensures Labor’s digital disasters are never repeated.
“We will insist that the Chief Information Officer works with government departments to produce mandatory project criteria.
“Departments will be compelled to provide more information about their decisions and conduct regular health checks as projects are rolled out.
“The Chief Information Officer will investigate project failures and ensure that lessons are learned.
“We will keep technology budgets on track and in the black.
“Without a budget and an economic plan, the Palaszczuk Labor Government continue to hide their wasteful spending from Queenslanders.”
The report showed:
- Only 47% of IT projects were tracking on time. Of those, 26% of projects will blow out by more than 50% in time.
- Only 62% of IT projects were tracking on budget. Of those, 23% of projects will blow out by more than 50% more of the expected cost, with 21% if projects expected to blow out by more than 100% from the original cost.
- The Queensland Government has seen costly technology project failures, including:
- In 2018, the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training cancelled its Training Management System project after spending an estimated $34 million.
- In 2019, Queensland Treasury cancelled its State Penalties Enforcement Registry (SPER) technology project after spending $52.7 million.
- In 2020, the Department of Health cancelled its Laboratory Information System project after spending $51 million.
Link to report:
