IT glitch blocks sex abuse reports

Police said 219 of the most urgent cases had been "triaged" and the rest would be looked at in coming days. Photo / Thinkstock

A government computer glitch in Queensland has caused more than 600 cases of suspected child sexual abuse to go unreported.

After reviewing all 644 cases, child protection officers have been conducting urgent welfare checks on children they consider most at risk.

Education Minister Kate Jones last week revealed that a coding error in a departmental computer program had stopped some public school principals' reports of suspected abuse since January from being received by police.

She announced yesterday that auditors Deloitte would conduct an eight-week external review of the department's processes to find out what happened and how to stop it recurring.

It will run alongside an internal inquiry that has already led to two employees - a contractor and a departmental staffer - being stood down.

Meanwhile, police said 219 of the most urgent cases had been "triaged" and the rest would be looked at in coming days.

Jones said she had been receiving daily updates from police, who are yet to rule out the possibility that children had been harmed because of the error.

"It is heartbreaking to hear that the police feel that that could be the case," Jones said. "[But] I have absolute confidence in the police and the thorough work they are doing to review all 644 reports."

Jones said Deloitte's audit would also look at what responsibility her department's director-general, Dr Jim Watterson, had for the bungle.

But Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pointed her finger at the former Liberal National Party Government, who were in caretaker mode before the state election when the program went live in January. The Premier asked why the program had not been properly tested.

A principal raised the alarm on Thursday after checking to see why his reports were not followed up.

School principals had been receiving receipts from the system to let them know when a complaint had been successfully sent, but the coding error meant police never received category three, or lower-tier, reports. The error has since been fixed.

- AAP