A WOMAN who was employed to help manage the fallout of the Queensland Health payroll debacle has been charged with fraudulently claiming overtime and penalty payments.
The Crime and Misconduct Commission allege the Caboolture woman, 35, made 46 fraudulent claims for overtime and penalty payments totalling $36,500.
The former public servant was appointed to help manage an increased workload following the introduction of the new health payroll system in March 2010, the CMC said.
The CMC will allege she made fraudulent claims between May, 2010, and August, 2011. The woman is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on July 29.
The introduction of the payroll system was beset by problems that went on for months, seeing staff overpaid, underpaid, not paid at all or paid in place of other staff.
A $5 million six-month inquiry found that procurement policies and project management standards had not been followed in establishing the health payroll system.
Inquiry head Richard Chesterman QC said it was one of the greatest public administration failures in Australian history.
It has been estimated it will cost taxpayers $1.2 billion to fix the payroll system, which went live in March 2010.
There is still legal and administrative work being done to reconcile some of the accounts of staff who were overpaid – a system unions warn has experienced its own problems.
The Newman Government in December launched legal action to seek compensation from IBM, which was awarded a $6.19 million contract for a health payroll system in 2007.
Earlier this month, James Brown, a senior public servant who was sacked over the health payroll debacle, confidentially settled his lawsuit against the State Government for wrongful dismissal.
The Government is now embarking on another overhaul of the health payments system, aiming to roll what it claims are hundreds of award conditions into just a few categories which it says will drastically simplify the payroll and save the Queensland taxpayers millions.
Source: Courier Mail