The ACT Auditor-General has delivered a scathing and embarrassing critique of the planning, processes, governance and administration which led to $77.7 million in taxpayer funding being wasted on modernising the territory's Human Resources Information Management System.
The HRIMS program was a "significant failure for the territory", the auditor found.
Only one module of the program was ever delivered until it was terminated midway through this year.
Work started on the program in March 2017 and was estimated to take 29 to 39 months to complete.
The government contract was with professional services provider Ernst and Young.
A project management plan was prepared by EY as a deliverable under its contract in May 2019 and, following several iterations, was revised in December 2019.
The plan was "accepted" by the territory but not formally "endorsed" by the steering committee nor the program board, the auditor found.
"Every aspect of the HRIMS program, including its planning, governance and administration and management arrangements, was characterised by multiple failures at all levels," the auditor reported.
The original program had been costed at $15 million and approved in the 2107-18 ACT budget.
Two subsequent business cases, as part of the 2019-20 ACT budget and 2022-23 ACT budget, increased the total approved funding to $72.2 million.
But after multiple redesigns of the governance arrangements, in which the auditor noted "confusion" with respect to the roles and responsibilities of the governance board members and a reluctance on the part of those people to make critical decisions, a halt was called in June 2023.
The total amount paid to EY exceeded the initial value of the executed contract by $5.14 million.
"Program monitoring and assurance arrangements were poor, including quality assurance, program reporting and risk management activities," the report found.
The report said Projects Assured was engaged as an "assurance partner" in December 2019 but "over the course of its engagement, in 2020 and 2021, Projects Assured did not produce or provide any written reports".
Projects Assured was paid a total of $140,181 for its services.
The auditor has recommended the ACT government should table a response in the ACT Legislative Assembly "that provides a comprehensive plan that details the actions to be taken by the territory to address the failures identified in this report".
The LIberals' Peter Cain has labelled the government's handling of the program "a total failure of public administration".
"The government have continuously underplayed the magnitude of this issue," he said.
"It is mind-boggling that the minister responsible has not only faced no repercussions for this waste and mismanagement but has been granted a promotion in the Chief Minister's recent reshuffle."
