Ms LEE - 2013-12-04
In 2006, the former Labor government approved a proposal to replace nine ICT systems with a new asset management system, at an estimated cost of $7m. Can the minister advise the House what this decision, by the then Labor government, has cost Territory taxpayers to date?
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arnhem for her question. The member for Arnhem has constantly asked me why there is not more money to put into bush communities. One of the reasons is that the asset management system, which government inherited from the previous Labor government, administers somewhere around $11bn of government owned assets. It is a very important computer system put in place by the previous Labor government in 2006, at an estimated cost of $7.2m. It was to combine nine older systems and deliver savings five years into its operations.
To date, that system has cost government more than $50m and is haemorrhaging badly. The bill is expected to grow higher because the system is still not working properly and still requires expensive fly-in fly-out interstate staff to keep it running.
It is a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money, which could have been avoided by the former Labor government. It is a scandal of epic proportions, and the former Labor government should have invoked a get-out clause for non-performance by Fujitsu, which was the contracted systems integrator for the new asset management system.
Over the life of the project, Fujitsu has had more than 11 project managers and at least 100 different specialist contractor resources working on the AMS. On the day the system went live, there were 70 known defects. Today, there are more than 200 known defects which require fixing. This is hampering government in a major way.
Something which may alarm people about the level of Labor incompetence is that when the go live time occurred in April 2012, contractors, many of whom were foreign backpackers with a poor grasp of the English language, were used to resource the AMS Help Desk answering phone calls and logging inquiries. This level of incompetence is beyond belief.
We have not ruled out seeking a legal remedy for non-delivery by the supplier. There is a team within my department which is working hard to investigate and fix this Labor mess, and I expect they will be in touch with me early in 2014. This is a scandal …
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Arnhem for her question. The member for Arnhem has constantly asked me why there is not more money to put into bush communities. One of the reasons is that the asset management system, which government inherited from the previous Labor government, administers somewhere around $11bn of government owned assets. It is a very important computer system put in place by the previous Labor government in 2006, at an estimated cost of $7.2m. It was to combine nine older systems and deliver savings five years into its operations.
To date, that system has cost government more than $50m and is haemorrhaging badly. The bill is expected to grow higher because the system is still not working properly and still requires expensive fly-in fly-out interstate staff to keep it running.
It is a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money, which could have been avoided by the former Labor government. It is a scandal of epic proportions, and the former Labor government should have invoked a get-out clause for non-performance by Fujitsu, which was the contracted systems integrator for the new asset management system.
Over the life of the project, Fujitsu has had more than 11 project managers and at least 100 different specialist contractor resources working on the AMS. On the day the system went live, there were 70 known defects. Today, there are more than 200 known defects which require fixing. This is hampering government in a major way.
Something which may alarm people about the level of Labor incompetence is that when the go live time occurred in April 2012, contractors, many of whom were foreign backpackers with a poor grasp of the English language, were used to resource the AMS Help Desk answering phone calls and logging inquiries. This level of incompetence is beyond belief.
We have not ruled out seeking a legal remedy for non-delivery by the supplier. There is a team within my department which is working hard to investigate and fix this Labor mess, and I expect they will be in touch with me early in 2014. This is a scandal …
Madam SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016