ENTERPRISE PATIENT ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (14:55): My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Has the minister approved the appointment of Mr Michael Long, at $3,000 a day, to help tackle the problems with EPAS?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.J. SNELLING (Playford—Minister for Health and Ageing, Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (14:55): No, not the footballer. No, I don't think the appointment required my specific authorisation; I will double-check that. When I took on the portfolio, one of the first things I did was ask that a review be done of the governance arrangements over all the IT projects in the Department for Health. That review was undertaken by Ernst & Young.

Ernst & Young's very strong advice to me as minister was to appoint someone with strong systems integration knowledge and experience to oversee all the ICT projects in the Department for Health. As a result of that, the department undertook a process to recruit someone. We recruited Mr Long from Canada to undertake this position. It is not a permanent public sector position. There is no doubt that the costs and salary associated with someone with these sorts of skills are significant; however, when you are talking about projects in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and given the difficulties that any entity undertaking a major IT rollout has and the risks associated with them, I think it is money well spent.