Top ACT public servants have failed the people of Canberra by not maintaining a strong culture of accountability, the ACT Greens have said in the wake of an abandoned system upgrade that wasted $77 million.
The Greens' Andrew Braddock said he was looking for a strong culture of accountability among senior public servants who were responsible for modelling leadership in the territory's public sector.
"Because when people take responsibility for their mistakes at an emotional level, governance is able to improve," Mr Braddock told the Legislative Assembly.
Mr Braddock said the government must allow public servants the latitude to fail, but there also needed to be accountability for mistakes.
"To be clear, I'm not asking for anyone to be punished. The Leeper report states this sorry affair was not due to the failing of any one individual, but a failure of governance. Punishment is rarely the solution to such a problem," he said.
Mr Braddock said the head of the ACT public service, Kathy Leigh, had pointed to lessons learned but "entirely fails to engage with the leadership and cultural shortfalls that led to this point on this project".
"No one has actually stood up to take responsibility for the state of governance on this project. No one has admitted that it was known the governance arrangements were not fit for purpose. No one has acknowledged the culture of the ACT [public service] senior leadership lacks the necessary element of accountability," he said.
Mr Braddock said the series of shortfalls meant that senior leadership in the territory's public service "is failing the people of Canberra".
The ACT government on Wednesday agreed to provide a formal update on the new project to upgrade the public service's human resources system before the end of the parliamentary term.
The Canberra Liberals had warned the project risked becoming "HRIMS 2.0", in reference to the abandoned scheme that was deemed a "failure" at all levels by the Auditor-General.
Special Minister of State Chris Steel tabled a review of the abandoned project prepared by SAP, the company contracted to implement the system, in response to the Liberals' calls for more transparency.
Mr Steel defended his record on being upfront about the handling of the project, pointing to the proactive release of other reviews.
"We accept and acknowledge the failures of the program. I've apologised for it to the community in the Assembly previously. I reiterate the commitment that I've made, that the government has learnt from the HRIMS program," Mr Steel said.
Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury said he believed, on balance, it was appropriate to release the SAP progress report given the "considerable public interest".
The February 2022 report showed SAP believed the project could proceed and the overall design was "positive", but told the government a decision was needed on how to handle "time interpretation". SAP recommended a change to the planned upgrade so this would be managed in the government's separate time and attendance system.
The review was commissioned after the program was paused in 2021 when it was set to miss its first deliverable. The program began in 2017 before Mr Steel was the responsible minister.
Opposition Leader Elizabeth Lee said the program was a "catastrophic stuff up" and Mr Steel, who had a "gobsmacking blase attitude", had never taken responsibility and was not sorry for "throwing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars down the toilet".
The money wasted could have paid for free public transport for Canberra students, seniors and concession card holders for nearly a decade, she said.
