‘Chaos’ in health led to PPARS flop

CHAOS, confusion and a lack of leadership in the health service led to taxpayers facing a €195 million bill for the flop PPARS computer system, it was revealed last night.

A damning report by Auditor General John Purcell into the payroll project stated there had been a “void in decision-making”.

He warned the failure must be learnt from to stop billions of euro being pumped into other major Government IT projects going the same way.

The probe revealed the flagship project did not have a defined budget, was rushed, poorly managed and had not delivered savings.

It was also critical of the €57m spent on consultants, including €38.5m to Deloitte & Touche.

Despite the huge amounts going to the private sector as costs escalated wildly, the State was taking all the risk, Mr Purcell found.

Originally meant to cost €9m and be up and running in 2000, the bill for the PPARS programme hit €131m last August and will top €195m next year - 21 times the initial estimate.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said the report was an appalling indictment of a health service where no one seemed to be in charge.

“It was a mess. When resources are badly needed to tackle waiting lists and crowded A&Es, this waste is more galling,” he said.

However, Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney said PPARS had “teething problems” but was now dealing with nearly a quarter of staff.

“Valuable lessons can be learnt from the management of this project and for IT and change management projects in the public sector generally,” she said.

The roll-out of the project to cover all 140,000 health service positions was suspended in October and a decision on the system will be made early next year.