AG audit of BC gov’t IT projects likely to turn up string of waste, failure
Posted August 21, 2015 4:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) The opposition is expecting a long list of failed projects and millions of wasted money when the Auditor General releases her report on BC government IT projects next year. The BC NDP believes the over-budget and defective Panorama infectious disease project is only the beginning.
An audit on Panorama released last week shows the IT system that should be tracking cases of infectious disease and vaccination rates nation-wide is 420 per cent over budget and still isn’t operational, years past its due date.
NDP Citizen’s Services Critic Doug Routley expects similar findings when the auditor presents her report on government management of all IT projects. He believes the auditor will turn up a history of millions of wasted taxpayer dollars with little result. “This government was warned during the planning and implementation stages of these programs that these pitfalls and problems had been experienced elsewhere and they seem to have ignored that.”
He says there are plenty of examples of other failed IT projects that need investigation. “You’ve got BCeSIS, the education system. A $100-million system. The school districts, school trustees were saddled with the costs of implementing that as they complained that it wasn’t working only for the government to finally to admit once it was fully implemented that it didn’t work. They had ignored all the warnings all the way along and now they have to admit that the thing is pretty much useless and needs to be replaced.”
Auditor General Carol Bellringer said last week problems with Panorama point to a deeper issue with contract management and a full review of all IT projects should turn up more answers.
