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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-07-02 Daily Xml
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AUDITOR-GENERAL'S SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (15:35): The remaining questions are:

1. What has the minister done since April 2008 to resolve the issues raised by the external accounting firm which reported that staff working on the TRUMP system did not have the knowledge and skills required to operate the system and that this was impacting on revenue collection and disbursement processes, and that there were discrepancies arising from the system's implementation and variations in banking and clearing accounts that were not followed up or effectively controlled?

2. Can the minister explain the increase in the number of employees whose remuneration falls within the band $100,000 to $349,000 from 109 in 2007-08 to 204, given that the auditor points out that these numbers include only two DAIS employees?

3. Can the minister provide a list of all 16 consultancies that have been undertaken during 2007 and 2008, given that the department's 2007-08 annual report has not yet been tabled in the council?

4. Were the matters raised by South Australia Police resolved prior to the system going live? I refer to page 103 of the report.

5. The Auditor-General has advised there were 308 outstanding defects in the system ranging from critical/major to minor. How many of those were raised by South Australia Police?

6. What are the mandated security standards for ICT service providers; how often are those service providers required to undertake self-assessment, and is the government provided with reports of these self-assessments?

7. Why has the department not maintained a fully documented baseline of TRUMP system functionality and regular updating of TRUMP test plans since its implementation? The Auditor-General states that such key documentation should address system design, functionality, security controls, operation, and interfaces with other systems.

8. Page 42 of the Auditor-General's Report talks about performance audits of bus depots. What is the current status of the performance audits of bus depots?

9. Of the full-time employees who will be targeted as part of the government's saving measures for targeted separation packages, how many will be employees earning over $100,000? Page 70 of the report outlines that 204 employees within DTEI are receiving remuneration of $100,000 in 2008, an increase of 95 over the previous year.

10. I am aware that much of the external work commissioned by the department which used to be classified as 'consultants' is now classified as 'other service contractors' or 'suppliers'. Can the minister provide a list of all service contractors, suppliers and consultants for 2007 and 2008 who received amounts over $50,000? In 2008, $50.9 million was spent on other service contracts and $69.9 million was spent on infrastructure maintenance contracts, and only $178,000 was spent on consultants. I refer to page 71 of the Auditor-General's Report.

11. Finally, what does the minister expect net foreign exchange losses to be for 2009? Note 11 under 'other expenses' in the Auditor-General's Report states that net losses on foreign exchange were $976,000 in 2008 and $1.029 million in 2007.

I thank the minister for her indulgence. That puts on the record the remaining questions on notice.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Consumer Affairs, Minister for Government Enterprises, Minister Assisting the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Energy) (15:39): Two of those questions I have some responsibility for so I can provide a response. First, in relation to the question concerning follow-up and controls, I can answer with respect to the qualification of the Auditor-General's Report that relates to deficiencies in controls associated with the registration and finance component of the TRUMP system. During the 2007-08 financial year, something like 4.1 million transactions, with a total value of just over $1 billion, were processed through the TRUMP system. Outstanding transactions included in the June 2008 reconciliation represent significantly less than 0.1 per cent of total transactions.

The type of discrepancies being processed through the bank reconciliation included things such as transactions processed incorrectly through EFTPOS handsets, manual credit card transactions, third party dishonoured cheques, remote payment gateway outages (an example is the internet), and bank adjustments, including fees and interest payments.

Some of the improvements implemented during 2007-08 included the development of system reports, the appointment of additional qualified staff, and the review and revision of documented procedures to ensure they reflect appropriate financial management techniques. The department has also appointed a high level finance team, led by the director of finance, to continue work in addressing those issues raised by the Auditor-General.

The control improvements implemented in 2008-09 include further systems improvements such as the consolidation of payment gateways to the proven Bizgate system to strengthen system and audit trails and reporting capabilities, completion of the GRL receipting system metro roll-out in November 2009, the partial automation and reconciliation process resulting in the lock-down of spread sheets, the reduction of reliance on manual processing and increased checking.

In 2008-09, it also included targeted training programs and updated procedures in cash handling and financial control matters for customer service centre staff, restructured support services to provide separate quality assurance training and audit roles to customer service centres and back of house financial control staff, the completion of mapping all system and manual reconciliation processes and mapping of procedures to the processes, and undertaking a knowledge matrix review in 2009 to ensure cross-training and staff back-up during periods of leave.

In terms of the police matters identified before going live, I am advised that in the lead-up to the TRUMP implementation outstanding defects were very carefully managed. All defects representing a significant risk to the system's operations were resolved prior to seeking approval to implement the system.

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