Government celebrates DHR expansion, avoids serious questions over $110m contract
The Canberra Liberals welcome the expanded rollout of DHR Link to Canberra GPs.
More doctors should have access to ACT public health information, and patients should have better continuity of care.
While the ACT Health Minister has been trumpeting that slow expansion, she has said nothing about the Auditor-General’s report on the Digital Health Record contracts, released late Tuesday afternoon.
“The report raises serious questions about ACT Labor’s management of the contracts behind DHR,” Canberra Liberals Leader, and Shadow Health Minister Mark Parton said.
The Auditor-General found significant weaknesses in the then ACT Health Directorate’s procurement and invoicing controls. Invoices were paid without work orders or purchase orders, and there was inadequate documentation of the services provided.
Most significantly, more than $16 million in consumption-based payments under the NTT hosting arrangement lacked reasonable assurance that the services paid for were actually received, or that the correct price was paid. The NTT deal started at $66 million and grew to $110 million.
The Public Accounts and Administration Committee has gone further, warning that poor management of NTT invoices, “could be indicative of a larger pattern of mismanagement within the DHR project.”
The Committee also highlighted evidence from the former Auditor-General that the more serious issues may concern project governance, how DHR was put together, and the information provided to Cabinet.
“The Government is spruiking a belated rollout while ignoring yesterday’s findings on the contracts behind the system,” Mr Parton said.
“This is not about whether DHR Link should expand. It is about whether ACT Labor can manage the contracts that make it possible. Canberrans are entitled to both better care and a government that can show it paid for what it received.
“After Operation Kingfisher, this is another procurement failure this city cannot afford.”