Welfare changes costly to ministry

By RICHARD WOOD

The Ministry of Social Development has spent $15.7 million in the past 16 months on changes to invalid and superannuation welfare payment systems to Australia.

Almost half that money has gone on modifications to benefits software Swiftt, which might be replaced.

In total, $10 million was spent on systems design, build and testing, $1.2 million on acceptance testing, $2.3 million on project management and business processes, $0.5 million as a contingency and $1.7 million on GST.

EDS and Compaq got most of the IT spend.

Newly appointed chief information officer Christine Stevenson, a former general manager of finance, said the Australian Social Security Agreement project was considerable, but had come in on time and slightly under budget.

The project went live on July 1.

It was the implementation of an agreement announced in February last year between the two countries.

National manager international services Ross Gillet said the ministry looked at the options and modifying Swiftt was the most cost-effective choice.

It was also probably the only one that would have allowed the changes to be done in the time required, he said.

Last year, the Australian Government changed residency and citizenship arrangements for New Zealanders moving to Australia.

Rules regarding the availability and extent of invalid benefits and superannuation in both countries were altered.

Gillet confirmed that the bulk of the $15.7 million spent on the project had been in IT, with the rest spent on administrative changes, brochures, and training.

Although close to half of the money went on changes to Swiftt, almost all the ministry's systems needed some modification.

Gillet said at its peak, a team of up to 28 people worked on the project in Wellington.

Most of the work was done internally with six to eight specialists called in as required.

The ministry has 200 staff working in IT.

With $30 million spent last year on two new mainframe systems, it can tack on modifications to Swiftt for the next three to five years, but will likely need to redevelop it or port it off mainframes after that.

Stevenson said Swiftt was very reliable.

"It pays over 1 million New Zealanders every year with virtually no problems at all. It is a terrific system."

An earlier plan to port Swiftt to Unix Machines, as part of a huge integration project called Focis, was canned in mid-2000.

Stevenson said Focis was ancient history.

The spending on the Australian Social Security project also covered alterations to social security arrangements with the Netherlands, but these would not now be switched on until next year due to delays on the Netherlands' side.