Queensland Govt cuts 384 IT contractors

Identifies 997 software applications in state of disrepair.

The Queensland Government has cut 384 IT contractors between May and June of this year in a bid to save taxpayers about $40,000 an hour.

A spokeswoman for the state's IT minister Ros Bates told iTnews that the Government had 901 IT contractors on its books in May.

"By the end of June there was 517 [contractors]," the spokeswoman said.

Bates accused the former Labor state government of wasting "millions of taxpayer dollars ... on contractors every month".

"Clearly, contractors should only be hired to service areas where the Government doesn't already have the necessary skill set," Bates said in a statement.

"The amount being squandered [on contractors] is outrageous."

The Herald Sun reported that some IT contractors were earning up to $1600 a day, despite being on the Government's books for several years.

More audit pain

Bates also revealed further details from an Government ICT audit that is due to be handed down at the end of October.

iTnews revealed exclusively last month that the Queensland Government faced an up to $5 billion repair bill to fix just 50 of the state's most vulnerable IT systems.

Bates said that the Government has since identified 997 applications that were "not replaced when needed", estimating the costs to fix the issues could top $6 billion.

"This presents a huge challenge, as we work towards our reform agenda and bring the state's finances under control," she said.

"Many of these systems have already reached the end of their functional life span, yet there are absolutely no plans in place to replace them".

Bates said a "team of specialists" had been engaged to work through likely fixes and "identify cost-effective solutions".

iTnews reported last month that the state's 200,000 computers could run on new "architectures" if there was not enough money to bring them onto a refreshed Windows operating system.

The Government is also known to be exploring cloud-based email options in place of an Exchange 2007 project cancelled by the current State Government.