The costs to the taxpayer of a disastrous State Government IT project continue to climb, with the Auditor-General revealing another million dollars could be added to the mounting bill.
InDaily revealed in July that the Government had given up on the so-called CASIS project – which was meant to fix long-standing problems with the payment of state concessions – after spending more than $7 million on the concept.
The system was meant to cost just $600,000.
The sting to the taxpayer is much higher than the development costs, because the Department of Communities and Social Inclusion has also been overpaying energy bill concessions.
Earlier this year, the Government conceded that $1.3 million had been overpaid.
However, the Auditor-General’s annual report, tabled in Parliament yesterday, reports that the figure could be much higher – up to a further $1.2 million.
“This would result in a total amount of overpayments to be recovered of up to $2.59 million,” the report said.
Of the $1.3 million previously identified as having been overpaid, only $184,506 had been recovered. The Department has sent letters to people over-paid the concession, and is “acing on legal advice regarding the appropriate process for recovery of the overpayments”.
The report also shows that the $7.4 million spent on CASIS over the past six years has resulted in “no economic benefit to DCSI”.
“Significant delays in the system’s implementation and operation have resulted in additional costs to the taxpayer,” the report said.
“The $7.4 million spent on CASIS has not achieved the goal of improving the effectiveness of the management of concession outlays, nor the implementation of the planned system. This expenditure has not resulted in any economic benefit to DCSI and was expensed in the financial report.”
CASIS has been repeatedly criticised by the Auditor-General over the years.
InDaily has investigated the project over many years, repeatedly reporting concerns about the department’s failure to reconcile concessions with eligible customers and the quality of the system under development.
The project was scrapped in July after the developer, ac3, told the Government it was no longer in the business of developing software.
The State Government has been seeking Crown advice about recovering costs from ac3.
However, the ultimate costs of the failed project will be higher than the $7 million spent on CASIS and the overpayments of concessions. The Government is pushing ahead with a new online system for delivering the Government’s new cost of living concession.
The system, dubbed COLIN (Cost of Living Information), could cost another $2 million to develop in-house.
In the meantime, the Auditor-General says the Department has undertaken a manual reconciliation to match its concession payments in 2014-15 with eligibility requirements.
“We will consider the effectiveness of this reconciliation process as part of the 2015-16 audit,” the Auditor-General said.
Minister Bettison told InDaily the Government was still considering its position in relation to possible legal action against ac3.
She said the department believed the additional figure of overpayments was $1.2 million but it was still waiting on information from energy retailers.
“The department cannot confirm the amount of overcharging without the additional information about those customer records, including the length of time that concessions have been inappropriately applied by retailers,” she said.
Bettison said she expected to receive the business case and projected cost of the new COLIN system within the next week.
