HEALTH DEPARTMENT

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite) (15:06): My question is again to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Now that the minister has had 24 hours to get an answer, can he tell the house what is the value of unreconciled accounts within the health portfolio in the current year 2011-12?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for the Arts) (15:06): As I said yesterday, there were unreconciled accounts from the previous year because we were going from a range of legacy systems to one new system and there was a backlog of accounts that needed to be gone through. Under the new system, accounts are being reconciled on a regular basis, as is appropriate, and there is no issue, as far as I am aware, of any unreconciled accounts. Every month, of course, you go through the process of reconciliation and, depending on what time of the month, accounts will be reconciled. At the end of the month they are reconciled and then you move onto the next month.

So, the issue about accounts which had not been properly attributed to lines was a factor in relation to the previous year when we were moving from a series of legacy accounts into a new account. As I said, the opposition suggested it was $200 million; I think it was around $60 million or $70 million. That has been brought down to about $20 million and they are still working through that. They anticipate that will be completed by the end of next month. As I said to you yesterday—and I have checked again today—there are no outstanding issues. The reconciliation process is going as it would. There is no unreconciled amount, other than what would be expected during the normal process of monthly reconciliation.