A Government IT project that commenced in 2002 and has so far cost South Australian taxpayers $54 million dollars has still not been finalised, and has no completion date in sight.
Shadow Treasurer Rob Lucas said the Weatherill Government’s mismanagement of the Revenue SA Information Systems to Enable Compliance (RISTEC) project was farcical and deeply embarrassing.
“For many years now, the RISTEC project has been plagued by delays and cost blowouts,” said Mr Lucas.
“The RISTEC Project commenced in 2002, and was meant to be finished by 2006. Eight years later and we are still waiting. Only Stage 1 has been rolled out, to the Payroll tax branch. We are now advised the completion date might be delayed further to either 2015 or 2016!
“This project was originally budgeted to cost $22.5 million, but Budget Papers reveals this has blown out by $31.6 million.
“It beggars belief that the Labor Government has spent $54 million on a system that has taken more than 12 years to develop and has still not been implemented.
“Since 2002, Labor has had four different Treasurers, but not one of them has been able to get the RISTEC project under control.
“Sadly, the RISTEC project reflects widespread blowouts and overspending across the board by this Government.
“We’ve seen numerous other examples of disastrous mismanagement of IT systems, such as Oracle and the Enterprise Patient Administration System in SA Health. These blowouts have been part of a staggering $3.9 billion worth of unbudgeted spending since Labor was elected in 2002.
“Treasury is trying to get other Departments to rein in their spending yet they can’t even get their own house in order. The RISTEC project is an albatross around Treasury’s neck.
“Sadly, yet again long-suffering South Australians are being forced to pick up the bill for Labor’s endemic financial mismanagement.”