Housing Minister Maurice Williamson has dismissed claims from
Labour that costs of a business case for an IT system
overhaul at Housing New Zealand are spiralling out of
control.
Labour's Housing spokeswoman Moana Mackey said "insiders" had
told the party that costs of the exercise were likely to
reach $20 million and today called on Mr Williamson to
intervene and assure taxpayers money wasn't being wasted.
Housing NZ yesterday released a statement saying its systems
were outdated to an extent it was becoming difficult to
conduct its business.
Its core customer management system was 17 years old and
hugely inefficient.
Spokesman Nick Maling said an extensive amount of research
had been done including the development of a business case
for new systems and technology allowing Housing NZ to design
its business more efficiently.
"That business case is going to Housing New Zealand's board
for approval next week. I cannot comment on the specific
contents of it," Mr Maling said.
He said full costs of the programme to date were $9.574m
(excluding GST) over two years, and it was anticipated
business efficiencies from the programme would be up to $70m
a year.
Mr Williamson said Labour was the party which initiated the
review back in mid-2008 when in power.
He told NZPA he and Finance Minster Bill English had a recent
briefing from Housing NZ and were confident the project,
which had been looked at by Treasury and the State Services
Commission, had been carried out properly to date.
"We've got a whole lot of processes in place to ensure proper
value for money is being taken into account when any new
systems are being built," Mr Williamson said.
He said the current system was so old it could not deliver
what the Government wanted, which was tracking client needs
and prioritising allocations.
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