SA opposition promises to audit government IT

South Australia’s Liberal opposition has promised two reviews into critical IT systems if it wins Saturday’s state election.

On Friday iTnews reported the Labor government had assured the Police Association it would put in place a “sufficiently funded plan” to replace ageing solutions if it wins another term.

Liberal police spokesman Dan van Holst Pellekaan today responded by committing to a review of the SA Police’s IT needs if his party is elected to power this weekend.

“After 12 years of Labor neglect, SA Police face a major challenge to migrate their 41 legacy IT systems, half of which are more than 20 years old," he told iTnews.

“If elected on 15 March, an incoming Marshall Liberal Government will commence a review of SAPol’s IT needs."

The Marshall Coalition has also announced it will launch a review into the IT operations of the Department of Health, which has faced technology troubles of its own in recent years.

In October last year the Department was forced to revise up its anticipated spend on the state-wide roll out of a new Oracle financial system, from $22.9 million to $62.5 million. The blow-out has been put down to a serious under-estimation of the remediation work involved at the outset of the project in 2010.

A Liberal government in SA will “institute a review of all Health IT projects given the massive budget blowouts and probity concerns which have been raised about the management of these projects,” shadow health minister Rob Lucas said.

iTnews has contacted the state opposition for further detail but has not yet received a response.