An upgrade to the ACT public service's existing human resources and payroll systems will cost more than $17 million on top of the $76 million spent on a now abandoned replacement project.
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Special Minister of State Chris Steel said the option to upgrade the systems was not properly considered in the project that was to translate 18 enterprise agreements, 14 different systems and hundreds of business processes across the government into one IT system.
"We're not the first government in Australia that has struggled to implement that type of payroll reform. And we're certainly looking at how we can take the learnings from this forward into more IT projects in the future," Mr Steel said.
The ACT budget included $17.1 million in the next financial year for upgrades to existing systems, which Mr Steel said would be achieved at less cost and with less risk than the abandoned replacement project.
Mr Steel brushed off the opposition's suggestion in Legislative Assembly question time on Thursday he had misled budget estimates last year when he said the replacement project would deliver future cost savings to the territory.
The new approach to upgrade existing systems would also deliver cost savings to the ACT because it would reduce the reliance on manual processing and improve employee self-service access, Mr Steel said.
Under sustained questioning from the opposition, Mr Steel blamed the COVID-19 pandemic as a significant factor in the delays to the now-abandoned project to roll out a system based on SAPSuccessFactors software.
"There was a very significant challenge of being able to engage with officials across directorates who are contributing to this project when their priorities were elsewhere support the ACT government's response to the public health emergency," he said.
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Elements of the work that had been done to date would be used in the next stage of upgrading the ACT's existing systems, Mr Steel said.
"Even a basic Google search about payroll systems would lead [Shadow Treasurer Peter Cain] to see several articles about previous difficulties that governments have had in implementing payroll systems across government," he said.
"It is a challenge particularly when you're looking at delivering a shared service through a single integrated human resource management system."
More than $44.5 million was paid to 23 consulting companies who were granted contracts to work on the abandoned project.
Mr Steel on Thursday took on notice a question of why the government had spent money on hospitality and advertising in relation to the abandoned project.
The government first became aware there was a problem with the project in the lead up to December 2020, when a project deadline was set to be missed, Mr Steel said on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr on Wednesday said the project had not achieved what the government had hoped for, but said it was not a total write off.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
