Paul Lucas denies being warned over Queensland Health payroll problems

PAUL Lucas was warned nine months ago that Queensland Health's payroll system would be a disaster but claims he only saw the memo last week.

DEPUTY Premier Paul Lucas was warned nine months ago that Queensland Health's payroll system would be a disaster, but has claimed he only saw the damning memo last week.

The 11-page memo, addressed to Mr Lucas from the Queensland Health department executive overseeing the payroll changes, warned that the project was millions of dollars over budget, lacked "project management" and was suffering "critical failures of governance".

The memo specifically warned there was a chance staff might get "underpaid" if the system went live.

But Mr Lucas yesterday said the memo did not go "up the chain" to him at the time and that he had only sighted it late last week.

"I did not get that brief and it is clear it did not go up the chain, OK?" he said. "It was not sent to me. How can you say someone has warned me in something they didn't communicate to me?"

Thousands of hospital workers have been short-changed or missed entire payments since the bungled introduction of the $40 million payroll system last month. Some staff had 1¢ transferred into their accounts.

Others had data about rostered days off and overtime wiped from the new system.

The memo to Mr Lucas – a copy of which has been obtained by The Courier-Mail – was written by Anthony Price, the director of the Queensland Health Enterprise Solutions Transition (QHEST) on July 6 last year.

When asked why he as minister was not abreast of serious systems problems with the payroll project at the time of the memo, Mr Lucas said that "the department has 75,000 people".

"It wasn't briefed to me, I'm sorry," he said. "Not only was it not briefed to me, it had not even gone to the deputy director general or the director general let alone to me.

"I don't have the benefit of seeing things that are not sent to me or indeed with the benefit of hindsight.

"With the benefit of hindsight I would have been down there needling people every second day. The memo certainly identifies serious problems. Everything that was mentioned in that brief should have been addressed.

"That's what concerns me, regardless of who got it. That's what concerns the public. That's what should concern our staff."

The memo stressed that if the payroll software problems were not fixed, Queensland Health might end up with "a complete failure of the project" and a system it could not use.

It also suggested that when the system finally went live, staff would need to be employed for up to eight months to manually correct system glitches "in anticipation of an eventual fix".

Premier Anna Bligh last week ordered an investigation into the payroll fiasco and warned that heads would roll if it was proved there was negligence involved in the project.

The memo stated: "The QHIC Project is significantly over time and budget."

Mr Price recorded that the continual delays with the project resulted in "much of the testing activities" being compressed.

Opposition Leader John-Paul Langbroek said Mr Lucas could no longer deny responsibility and pass the buck over the health pay crisis.

"It sounds like Paul Lucas is adopting the mantra of his predecessor in the health portfolio, Gordon Nuttall," he said.

"Gordon Nuttall claimed he was never told about problems in Queensland Health yet it turned out he was."