Queensland taxpayers are now saving $40,000 an hour on IT contractors thanks to reforms made by the Newman Government.
Member for Burnett, Stephen Bennett, said the Department of Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts was committed to reining in unnecessary State Government spending and more savings should flow from the Government ICT audit.
“The audit is the first of its kind in Queensland and I’m confident it will find even more savings for taxpayers,” Mr Bennett said.
“Labor’s waste and reckless financial mismanagement has seen millions of taxpayer dollars wasted on contractors every month.
“Clearly, contractors should only be hired to service areas where the Government doesn’t already have the necessary skill set.
“The amount being squandered is outrageous, with Queensland’s debt fast approaching $100 billion.”
Mr Bennett said an interim report from the audit painted a bleak picture, with 997 applications across Government not replaced when needed.
“Many of these systems have already reached the end of their functional life span, yet there are absolutely no plans in place to replace them,” Mr Bennett said.
“For years Labor has neglected the fact that these systems would need to be upgraded, and now we’ve got an incredibly serious problem on our hands that could cost up to $6 billion dollars to fix.
“This presents a huge challenge, as we work towards our reform agenda and bring the State’s finances under control.”
The Newman Government has engaged a team of specialists to work alongside auditors, in an effort to identify cost-effective solutions.
A full audit will be handed down on October 30, 2012.