❓ Mr. Cook questions the Minister for Health about actions taken to mitigate losses from ICT cost overruns, particularly at Fiona Stanley Hospital. The Minister details actions taken after awareness of the issues, including personnel changes and oversight implementation.
AnsweredQoN 19Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH — INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY — COST BLOWOUTS
19. Mr R.H. COOK to the Minister for
Health:
I have a supplementary question. At
the time of the inquiry called for by the acting director general, I think we
had two parliamentary inquiries on the go into problems with the minister's
ICT department and with cost overruns at Fiona Stanley Hospital's ICT.
Given that the minister was aware that this was a runaway problem at the time,
what specifically did the minister do to mitigate the losses to the state?
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY — COST BLOWOUTS
19. Mr R.H. COOK to the Minister for
Health:
I have a supplementary question. At
the time of the inquiry called for by the acting director general, I think we
had two parliamentary inquiries on the go into problems with the minister's
ICT department and with cost overruns at Fiona Stanley Hospital's ICT.
Given that the minister was aware that this was a runaway problem at the time,
what specifically did the minister do to mitigate the losses to the state?
AnswerView source ↗
A number of actions were taken once
we became aware of the issues. Immediately subsequent to that, the issues the
member referred to regarding ICT at Fiona Stanley Hospital were not related to
these. These were an internal issue with the Department of Health procurement
organisation buying health stuff across the system. They were separate. As soon
as those issues were identified by the procurement officer and were referred to
the Auditor General, changes were made immediately in the department to
mitigate against those circumstances happening again. By that time, those
officers were no longer working there. Significant changes in personnel have
been put in place and, overall, the government has now put in an ICT person
with total oversight of the management. The change we made was putting in that
procurement officer in the first place to look at the whole issue of
procurement across the Department of Health.
we became aware of the issues. Immediately subsequent to that, the issues the
member referred to regarding ICT at Fiona Stanley Hospital were not related to
these. These were an internal issue with the Department of Health procurement
organisation buying health stuff across the system. They were separate. As soon
as those issues were identified by the procurement officer and were referred to
the Auditor General, changes were made immediately in the department to
mitigate against those circumstances happening again. By that time, those
officers were no longer working there. Significant changes in personnel have
been put in place and, overall, the government has now put in an ICT person
with total oversight of the management. The change we made was putting in that
procurement officer in the first place to look at the whole issue of
procurement across the Department of Health.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.