The State Government’s bungled concessions payment system has blown out by another $1.1 million.

The latest blowout takes the cost of the Concessions and Seniors Information System (CASIS) project from its original anticipated cost of $600,000 to $5.8 million.

Communities and Social Inclusion Minister Zoe Bettison admitted the blowout in State Parliament’s budget estimates committee hearings yesterday.

“This is like a never-ending story; it just gets worse and worse and we haven’t seen the end yet,” shadow communities minister Duncan McFetridge told InDaily.

In a prepared answer to McFetridge’s questions, Bettison also revealed a number of people claimed concessions for their energy bills despite being ineligible – and repayment would be sought.

It’s the first full admission by the State Government since InDaily revealed the project’s failures in July last year.

“The total cost of the life of the project (from 2008-09 to the end of the 2013-14 year) for the development of CASIS is estimated at $5.8 million,” Bettison told parliament.

The blowout figure, however, is limited to the development costs of the project, which set out in 2009 to merge seniors’ cards and other concessions into a single client record.

Minister Bettison also revealed that recent checks had uncovered over-payments of concessions and rebates to people who were not eligible to claim them.

“DCSI was unable to match 5173 concession payment records between the total active records in the concessions and rebates tracking system and the files of active concession recipients provided by energy retails,” the Minister admitted.

“As at 11 June, from these records it has been determined that 2026 customers were entitled to continuing concessions and 987 were ineligible for a concession. As at 11 June, concessions totalling $311,157 were overpaid to 569 of these customers. Of the remaining 418 ineligible customers, DCSI is waiting for further information from energy retailers.”

InDaily has been told by department insiders that the over-payment of concessions and rebates is the tip of the iceberg and that energy companies have already indicated it is not their problem.

The Minister added: “The concessions for the customers who have not responded to two requests to make contact to ascertain their eligibility have been ceased.” She did not elaborate on whether these customers would be asked to repay previous rebates received.

It’s been a long road in getting the department and its Minister to admit to the extent of the problem in the time since InDaily first reported that the interstate company hired to develop and run the Concessions and Seniors Information System had gone into liquidation.

That was one year ago tomorrow, and at the time the Minister (then Tony Piccolo) told InDaily the project cost was $1.294 million.

One week later, a department spokesman confirmed the cost of the project was $3.63 million.

By October the figure had blown out further.

When the Department of Communities and Social Inclusion was asked by the Auditor-General for an update on the project, the numbers had grown.

The Auditor-General’s report shows auditors made further inquiries after InDaily’s report in July that the developer had one into liquidation.

“In response to audit inquiry of the Department in August 2013 regarding the status of the system development, the Department advised actual expenditure to 30 June 2013 on the system development was $3.71 million and a further $780,000 is estimated to be required to complete the system development.”

This was the fifth successive year that the state’s financial watchdog had slammed delays and failures in the system that controls the payment of concessions on energy and water bills and other government rebates.

“This ongoing system development has resulted in additional cost to the taxpayer with little benefit being realised to date (including the anticipated benefit of effective financial management of concession outlays),” the Auditor-General’s annual report of 2012-13 said.

“The past five annual audits have commented on the Department’s inability to comprehensively reconcile concession payments made with client details maintained on departmental databases.”

Today the bill stands at $5.8 million and counting.

The project started out in 2009 as a $600,000 proposal to deliver a better financial control system for the various rebate and concession schemes by 2010.

It is yet to be delivered in full functioning capacity.

“From 2009-10, specific comment has been made in each Annual Report on the anticipated implementation of the CASIS system,” the Auditor’s 2013 report noted.

“It is a matter of concern that the system is not yet operational.”

More than $600 million worth of concessions have been paid in the last five years using the flawed computer systems.