Vic Labor lashed for IT project management

Victorian taxpayers have been slugged an extra $1.44 billion because the previous Labour government mismanaged information and communication (ICT) projects, the ombudsman has found.

Victorian Ombudsman George Brouwer examined 10 major ICT projects which suffered cost overruns under Labor, including the troubled public transport ticketing system myki.

Mr Brouwer found each project failed to meet expectations, delivery timelines and budget.

The original budget for the projects was $1.3 billion but the latest estimates blew this out by another $1.44 billion.

"On average, projects will have more than doubled in cost by the time they are finished," Mr Brouwer said in his report tabled in parliament on Wednesday.

Premier Ted Baillieu stressed that there would be much greater scrutiny of IT projects under his government.

He said big computer projects tended to run the risk of massive cost overruns and he preferred to see such projects handled in more manageable, bite-sized pieces.

"What we need is to have some performance benchmarks along the way so that we know we're getting the results that are expected," he told reporters in Melbourne on Wednesday.

The report found the two largest projects, myki and the hospital IT system HealthSMART, would need almost $600 million more than planned.

Mr Brouwer said there had also been abject waste, with Victoria Police spending $59 million on its crime database Link over four years, only for it to be cancelled.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Kieran Walshe said he had been quite surprised when he heard of the cost issues but defended the decision to scrap the project as the responsible thing to do.

"There were some faults in the original business case," he said.

VicRoads spent $52 million on a licensing system RandL, which had not yet made it past the design phase.

Mr Brouwer said a number of reports over the years had shown significant shortcomings in the government's management of ICT projects but little had been learned.

He said too often, there was a muted acceptance that all ICT projects go wrong.

But he said the figures were significant.

"They represent many foregone hospital beds, trains, teachers, police and child protection workers," he said.

"It is critical that government manages and reins in these costs if it is to achieve better outcomes."

He made 58 recommendations to improve planning and delivery of the projects.

Victorian Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said he accepted the report's findings.

"I also accept and note the fact the ombudsman makes it clear that these, whilst they were very important projects, they were high risk projects, they were complex projects and many of them are still very high risk and complex projects," he told reporters.

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