Senator Jane Hume has grilled The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) over the findings of an audit into the Parliamentary Expense Management System (PEMS).
PEMS is the IT system for parliamentarians, their staff and administering agencies to claim and process office and travel expenses and administer payroll services.
Last month, ANAO found administration of PEMs had been partially effective. While there were appropriate governance arrangements, they weren’t ultimately being used to guide decisions.
They found the functionality of the system relied on manual workarounds, and end users were not appropriately consulted on its design.
Hume described the finding it had been partially effective as “interesting”.
“I think I speak for senators right across the chamber here. This is a project we as a committee have asked questions about over and over and over again because we knew there was a problem,” she said.
“The idea that it was partly effective is the understatement of the year.
“What’s the point in having functionality if you’re delivering incorrect information?”
PEMS has been an albatross for the Department of Finance for years. It has come under fire for over-allocating funds, slow and inaccurate reporting to users, and the time they accidentally sent $28,630 to nine politicians.
Given the detailed findings in the report, Senator Hume’s confusion is understandable. Beyond the summary findings and recommendations are a litany of criticisms of the scheme.
Auditor general Grant Hehir noted a lack of available information made it difficult to assess precisely how unhealthy PEMS was.
“Finance does not have a process in place to track if the benefits of PEMS, as presented in the business case, have been achieved,” he said.
“There was reporting to stakeholders on project status and delivery. This reporting was not effective in supporting appropriate escalation and decision-making to resolve project issues … The performance measure reported in Finance’s annual performance statements does not provide a complete view of PEMS performance.
“Original milestones were not met and the project schedule was re-baselined a number of times following delays.
“Users of the system have reported that they are not satisfied.”
ANAO recommended the Department of Finance set goals, and measure progress towards them, and seek feedback on their service delivery.
Speaking to his last estimates hearing before his retirement as auditor general, Grant Hehir defended the findings.
He said under the ANAO’s framework for assessment, there was no other finding he could have made.
“Our framework for assessment is that things are either fully effective, largely effective, partly effective or ineffective,” he said.
“Partly effective for us is a very critical audit report … this program we identified elements that could be seen as reasonable practice, but it didn’t lead to a fully effective outcome. That’s why we assessed it that way.”
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