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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-09-11 Daily Xml
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IRIS SYSTEMS

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:04): Will the Minister for Health provide further information in relation to IMVS?

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:04): I have sought further advice, subsequent to the questions asked by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition earlier in question time. The Government Investigations Unit has conducted a preliminary investigation into allegations of misconduct by staff at the IMVS relating to conflicts of interest and the assignment of intellectual property rights in the IRIS 2 computer interface software system.

These are complex legal issues in relation to whether the assignment of the intellectual property is valid. There are also issues relating to the employees who authorised the assignment, in particular as to whether they had authority to do so and that it was done in breach of government intellectual property policy.

Following the preliminary investigation into the matter, it has been referred to the SA Police Anti-Corruption Branch to enable a criminal investigation, particularly into whether criminal offences may have been committed contrary to the Public Sector Management Act 1995 and the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1936. The Auditor-General has also been informed of this matter. I wrote to the Auditor-General on this matter after being briefed by the Department of Health on 2 February 2008. Prior to 1 July this year, the IMVS was responsible to the IMVS Council under the Institute of Medical and Veterinary Science Act 1982. I just repeat: I was concerned, as was my department, about the governance issues associated with the running of IMVS and the associated Medvet company.

This legislation was opposed by the opposition. In fact, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition at the time said, 'I think this is tragic enough, but if it is not performing, if it was underperforming, if it was inadequately providing a service, the opposition would be the first to look at it.' That is what they said: if it was underperforming or if it was inadequately providing a service, they would be the first to look at it, but it is performing above par. They endorsed this structure which was failing. After the passage of this legislation (which those on the other side opposed), SA Pathology is responsible to the Central Northern Adelaide Health Service and the Department of Health.

SA Pathology extended an existing agreement that IMVS had regarding the maintenance of the IRIS software for 12 months, and that was following crown law advice. This software is essential to the operations of the organisation. I repeat: this matter is being investigated by the police. No findings of any sort have been found against any individual. We (that is, the department and I) were very concerned about the way the IMVS governance arrangements were operating. We took action to fix that. We are now pursuing the circumstances of this particular case through the SA Police Anti-Corruption Branch, which is the proper thing to do.

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