Govt warned of Incis cost blowout

By Andrew Laxon

Political reporter


The Government was warned about a cost blowout on the police Incis computer a month before Commissioner Peter Doone spent an extra $20 million on the project without cabinet approval.

Ministers considered sacking Mr Doone but were advised by the State Services Commission that this was unwarranted and might disrupt the Government's controversial police review.

A spokesman for the Auditor-General, David Macdonald, said yesterday that the former Minister of Police, Jack Elder, was told on November 11, 1997, that money was being spent on IT projects without proper authorisation.

The following month police chiefs signed a deal with IBM to spend $118 million on Incis, an increase of $20 million, even though they were not allowed to exceed their budget by more than $5 million.

Labour's police spokesman, George Hawkins, said the advice was further damning evidence of the chaos surrounding the project.

"Police were in the middle of a $100 million IT project and the Audit Office issues warnings like that? Alarm bells should have been ringing in ministerial heads [but] despite this clear and specific warning the Government failed to act."

The Audit Office made specific checks on unauthorised spending in the 1996-1997 year because it was worried that some Government departments might not be complying with the rules.

It found eight projects in breach - four in the Ministry of Defence, three in the Defence Force and one in Social Welfare - but said there was ambiguity in these cases.

In the case of the police, it advised Mr Elder that "appropriate delegated financial authority had not been obtained ... particularly evident in the case of IT projects."

Other papers released under the Official Information Act yesterday show the Government considered sacking Mr Doone for the overspending.

The State Services Commissioner, Michael Wintringham, told cabinet ministers in a report last September that they could either dismiss Mr Doone or reprimand him in a letter.

He did not recommend dismissal because Mr Doone's breach of the rules was apparently not deliberate. Sacking him might also upset the progress of the police review, which was proposing redundancies in senior police ranks.

As a result, the State Services Minister, Simon Upton, wrote Mr Doone a letter expressing "ministers' displeasure" at his actions.

Mr Doone said last night that his "inadvertent oversight" in not telling the cabinet about the extra $20 million had already been fully acknowledged and dealt with.