A Victoria Police computer contract has already blown out by more than $85 million, the Auditor-General confirmed yesterday.

In a report to Parliament, Auditor-General Wayne Cameron also revealed that $35.4 million had been spent on project variations without ministerial approval.

Confirming revelations made by The Age and The Sunday Age over the past year, the report raised numerous questions about the financial and operational management of the six-year project.

It also showed that four years into the contract, the Victoria Police still had no business continuity protection against disaster despite it being a key contractual requirement.

This supports a document leaked to The Age earlier this year that said Victoria Police's computerised criminal intelligence network was vulnerable to failure or attack, and had been for years. The force says its system is robust.

Having uncertainty over disaster recovery arrangements is always undesirable," the report says "but for it to be present in a major information technology facility of government is clearly unsatisfactory."

Other key points include:

• Further unspecified costs are forecast.
• Variations to the original contract total $85 million - 55 per cent of signed contract cost.
• Significant shortcomings remain in contract monitoring processes, even after four years.
• The contract remains secret, contrary to Government policy.
• A senior police staff member influenced two important decisions relating to the contract in May 1999 soon before taking a job with IBM.

Police and Emergency Services Minister Andre Haermeyer said the report confirmed "another botched and costly Kennett Government outsourcing time bomb".

"They transferred all the risk to the Victoria Police, and Victorian taxpayers. Now we're footing an $85 million bill," Mr Haermeyer said.

But Opposition police spokesman Kim Wells said the report raised grave questions about the vulnerability of the police IT system.

In a written response attached to the report, Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon notes with satisfaction "that a project of such magnitude has drawn what may be described as a favourable audit review".

She defends both the project's cost variations and the way in which they were approved, saying there were unforeseen Y2K compatibility costs, and the contract delegated power to the police to make variations to it.

Police Association secretary Senior Sergeant Paul Mullett said it appeared that police bureaucrats had been approving contract variations without authority to do so.

The IBM contract remains the subject of a wider inquiry by the Ombudsman. According to the Auditor-General's report, the estimated cost of the police IT project has risen from $151.5 million in 1999 to $239.5 million today, with further cost increases likely.

The Age

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2003