Buck passed on NDIS technology blunder

A technology bungle that has sent the NDIS into disarray appears to have been caused by departmental staff.

Malcolm Turnbull and Social Services Minister Christian Porter. Picture: Ray Strange.

A technology bungle that has sent the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme into disarray appears to have been caused by departmental staff.

After ducking questions for several days about who was ­responsible for the flawed new MyPlace portal, the federal government yesterday admitted the project was never put to tender and was refined and adapted “in-house”.

Social Services Minister Christian Porter has sought to deflect responsibility to Jane Prentice, the Assistant Disability Services Minister, who yesterday conceded the flawed computer system was set up by the Department of Human Services.

“These ICT systems were ­designed and built to specifications agreed with the National Disability Insurance Agency,” Ms Prentice said.

The government announced on August 5 that it had commissioned an independent review of the system “following disruptions to the ICT system in recent weeks”.

The NDIA online processing system was shut down on June 16 to shift to the MyPlace system for the national services rollout on July 1. But the scheme has since been beset by system malfunctions, providers not being registered, claims not being processed and funding not going into family accounts.

The system malfunction comes at the busiest point in the scheme’s history, as it starts ­assessing and approving individual plans for 430,000 people over the next three years.

As The Australian has ­revealed, service providers have been unpaid while clients have been forced to cancel their ­appointments and, in some cases, parents of children with disabilities have been threatened with debt collectors.

Many NDIS clients have plans and funds managed by the ­agency, with providers paid through an online portal rather than directly by clients.

South Australian upper house Dignity for Disability MP Kelly Vincent slammed the federal ministers over the IT “fiasco”, saying, “no one seems to know and no one is taking responsibility, even at the highest levels, for the impact this computer system shemozzle is having”.

“Information technology professionals inform me that the MyPlace portal would be lucky to be graded a low pass mark if it was a university assignment. This is not an exercise, it’s real world, real money and real lives they are dealing with,” she said.

Ms Vincent said some sole providers and small businesses had not been paid for two months and were falling behind on ­personal and business rental and mortgage payments, and struggling to pay staff.

“Physiotherapists, psychologists, speech pathologists and other disability service providers will be discouraged from starting work in the disability field because it seems so risky, with no guarantee of payment,” she said.

The government expects its review of the system to be completed by the end of this month.