House of Assembly Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2) 52 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Enterprise Patient Administration System ENTERPRISE PATIENT ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM Dr McFETRIDGE House of Assembly Morphett 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 House of Assembly Playford Minister for Health and Ageing Minister for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Minister for Defence Industries Minister for Veterans' Affairs 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.