Qld Premier releases terms for McComiskie review of shared services
- 13 July, 2010 13:38
- Comments 1
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh today released the terms of reference for the wide-ranging review planned of state government IT shared services agency, Corptech, as unionised nurses in the state intensify pressure on the Government over its disastrous health payroll systems upgrade.
The State Government contracted PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Roger McComiskie to review CorpTech - the government's applications shared services provider - several weeks ago as it broadly abandoned its whole of government push into shared services in the wake of the Queensland Health debacle.
Bligh said the primary objectives of the review would be to determine the most appropriate arrangements for providing finance and human resources management services to the state government in future; to make recommendations on the appropriate governance model for shared services, and to make recommendations for the future of the existing shared HR and finance services program.
The McComiskie review will have the scope to consider the state's shared services program in its entirety and will develop clarity about the specific roles of the different government agencies involved in the program.
One of the findings of the state's Auditor-General regarding the botched Queensland Health payroll upgrade, which has resulted in thousands of medical staff going unpaid, was that there was a lack of clarity of the specific roles of the various parties involved in the project — including CorpTech, Queensland Health and prime contractor, IBM.
McComiskie will also examine the benefits and risks of the state moving to more standardised processes and systems in its HR and finance environment — it currently operates across several different platforms, with some quickly becoming unsupported by vendors — and the benefits and risks of maintaining such a diverse environment.
“We want larger agencies with complex payroll requirements to be able to use the payroll system which suits them," said Bligh in a statement. “At the same time, smaller agencies should have the ability to cluster with similar agencies and utilise the one payroll system.
“We need the structural arrangements in place which support this approach.”
The McComiskie review has already commenced its investigation work, with the eventual report to be presented to Bligh's department by the end of September 2010.
Rally
The news comes as the Queensland Nurses Union will tomorrow dramatically up the pressure on the State Government over its botched health payroll systems upgrade, with nurses planning to rally outside Parliament House as the state's annual Health Estimates Committee hearings get under way.
"In light of the Auditor General’s damning assessment of the Queensland Health pay debacle, the QNU thinks it’s time to send an even stronger message to the government that we hold them ultimately responsible for fixing the payroll system," QNU member communication.
The QNU wrote that it believed it was time government officials and ministers answered some of its questions regarding the system — "questions like: Whyen is this payroll system going to be fixed? Can it even be fixed at all?"
The union has been one of the strongest critics of the Government over the debacle, exhorting its members to write to their local Government MP over the issue — or even directly to Premier Anna Bligh.
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Comments
Matt
1
This report basically states the obvious. Whats worse, however, is that they are recommending a structure that re-inforces the mistakes of the past. The isolation of QH and DET resolves the political issues associated with these larger groups. It does not resolve the fundamental issue around Service Management and the lack if responsibility between Service Management, Operations and Design Authorities. Lets face it no amount of good operational structure will fix a bad design. Sadly the Queensland Government ICT Services groups are full of poorly skilled and poorly motivated public servants. Shared Services models only work when you have Service Provider skilled designers and operators. 90% of staff in the Share Service groups in QG are still wishing for the good old days of bespoke public service departments. I'm amazed PWC have not really consider the root causes for much of the QH payroll technical issues and why it took so long to isolate them. Their recommendations go a long way to resolving some of the prior decision making, but not to ensure the structure prevents it from occuring again.