Last week both myself and Senior Consultant David Ekert
gave evidence at the Queensland Health Payroll System Commission of Inquiry. We
are pleased to have been able to assist the Commission of Inquiry and to
provide input into what we hope will be recommendations from the Commission to
assist the industry to avoid similar situations in the future.
The full text of our witness statements and transcripts
of hearing are available on the Commission's website
www.healthpayrollinquiry.qld.gov.au
Some points of interest from the hearings of the
Commission and from the evidence given by us are:
- This project has seen an approximate 10 fold increase
in expected costs (including business remediation) to $1.2 Billion and caused
hardship for thousands of health workers due to payroll issues.
- The Commission sought evidence from Information
Professionals to better understand the background to the appointment of Mr
Terry Burns to the position of Program Director for the Project and his role in
the tender process which resulted in the appointment of IBM.
- I gave evidence as to how Information Professional
Program Management, Quality Assurance & Account Management Standards
provided us with an early warning of our concerns with that appointment.
- My evidence includes these concerns being raised (on a
number of occasions and at a number of levels) with the Queensland Government
prior to that appointment.
- We respected the right of the Queensland Government to
make its own decisions on such matters as they did.
- Our concerns and the reasons for our concerns are set
out in some detail in our witness statements and transcripts on the
Commission's website. We can provide you
with a copy if you are interested.
- Our role in assisting the Commission has received some
media coverage, as per the below links.
Should you have any questions in relation to this coverage we would be
more than happy to answer them.
It is still early in the Commission's hearings and the
full chain of events that lead to the project outcome is yet to be fully
explored. Once presented, we hope there
are valuable lessons for the industry.
Meanwhile, Information Professionals' has the experience,
capability and systems, and is well suited to protect you from this (or
anything close to it) ever happening to your organisation in the future.
We look forward to the Commission's findings in the weeks
and months ahead.
Best regards,
Mark D Nicholls
Founding Partner and Managing Director
INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS
Keep Your Organisation Successful
Labels: 1.2bn, Commission, David Ekert, Debacle, Flanagan, IBM, Information Management, Lattice, Payroll Inquiry, Qld Health, Senior Consultant, South Africa, Statements, Terry Burns, Witness, Workbrain