Jessica Marszalek: Report into hospital IT bungle reveals depths of Palaszczuk Govt obfuscation

The Auditor-General’s report into Queensland Health’s botched roll out of its new hospital system was a stunning insight not just into another troubled IT project, but of a government hell bent on obfuscating the truth, writes Jessica Marszalek.

When Queensland Health pushed “go” on its new hospital payment system on August 1 last year it would be the start of months of chaos, not just for its staff but for the businesses who rely on them as their largest customer.

As confusion spread across its largely untrained ordering teams and warehouse staff who couldn’t make and receive the orders they needed, thousands of businesses were left stressed and frantically trying to collect on bills that weren’t being paid on time.

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Auditor-General Brendan Worrall’s report into the woeful rollout of the S/4HANA project finally quantifies the “significant issues” at the centre, as a whopping $540m of bills went unpaid in just the first three months alone.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles. Picture: Annette Dew

Even in the first three months of this year, half of QH billers were not paid on time – that’s 1819 businesses left waiting on $203.1m.

QH had to shell out an extra $3.1m on an already $30.4m over-budget venture as teams scrambled to plug the problems already identified in two audits done the month before the go-live, including by Mr Worrall himself.

Yes, that’s right, even though Queensland Health was told that the project wasn’t ready, it rolled the dice anyway.

Staff who hadn’t been trained properly and didn’t have correct systems access didn’t know what they were doing.

The system couldn’t read invoices properly and rejected 481,800 in a year, while scanners in warehouses couldn’t be used properly.

Joel Barlow led a playboy lifestyle while claiming to be a Tahitian prince while embezzling millions of dollars from QH between 2007 and 2011.

Fraud risks allowed users to alter payment details and delete them, meaning any would-be fake Tahitian princes could funnel QH funds into their own bank accounts and cover their tracks.

The program froze all the time, especially in busy periods, and locked out users completely on eight occasions, so the memory and processing capacity had to be doubled.

Staff were forced to bypass the program and pay bills on corporate credit cards, or seek orders directly from vendors.

And businesses desperate to get paid put in invoices multiple times, while QH only realised after a year that it had made $6.5m in overpayments it’s now chasing.

But that’s not all he found. Far from it.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things it uncovered was how the Palaszczuk government’s description of what was going on at the time did not gel with reality.

For while Mr Worrall found “significant issues” with the project, QH would only ever admit to “teething problems”.

“That is a system that is working,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament on September 19, seven weeks into the chaos.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Queenslanders the system was working. Pic Annette Dew

Even on Thursday, a day after the scathing report’s release, Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles continued to play down issues.

“We acknowledged at the time there were problems with the rollout that were being addressed,” he waxed.

“There‘s nothing particularly new in this report that we haven’t disclosed previously.”

Hmmm, not really though. Because taxpayers didn’t know lots of things in this report, that they had spent a whopping $3.1m fixing it, or that they’d shelled out $6.5m twice and that the system posed worrying fraud risks until Mr Worrall identified them.

Mr Miles advised that “the project is within budget” in December, despite the fact the Auditor-General found that extra money had already been spent by November 30 – before that statement was made.

Auditor-General Brendan Worrall

He eventually admitted there were some additional costs, but never quantified them.

In fact, the only reason Queenslanders know anything about the failures of the system is because of the media and whistleblowers who contacted The Courier-Mail to try to get answers themselves.

This is what led to the Auditor-General getting involved.

QH employees called and emailed, angry they couldn’t order what they needed and that their employer was blaming them for their own deficient training.

Businesses reached out too, talking about sleepless nights as their biggest customer suddenly blocked cash flow and the stress of trying to get paid.

Director of Resolve Healthcare Bridget Cronin spoke out after struggling to get paid for four months. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

But even when concrete facts were put to QH, they were never confirmed.

When asked how many bills were overdue, they’d spin a response around how many they’d paid instead.

Taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent and when it is being wasted.

So thanks to those whistleblowers. Because while the Palaszczuk government and its public servants wouldn’t do their jobs and be completely honest about what was going on, at least you spoke up.