Computer hiccup tests Government patience

The legal minds who draft the country's laws have a dispute of their own to deal with after yet another delay in a multimillion-dollar computer project.

The Parliamentary Counsel Office has been working with Unisys since 2001 on a project to improve public access to legislation, particularly on the internet.

But the project has been plagued with delays and cost blow-outs, and last week's announcement of another delay prompted Chief Parliamentary Counsel George Tanner to tell a select committee that seeking damages from Unisys is an option for the Government.

"There has been some correspondence about that," he said.

The Parliamentary Counsel Office has stated its legal position to Unisys, which had "responded predictably", he said.

For the time being the two have decided to put the damages issue aside until the system is up and running.

Mr Tanner said it was better to concentrate on delivering the system rather than becoming distracted by legal issues.

Unisys was not available for comment.

National MP Richard Worth said the project was "a saga on any view of it", and was a significant problem for the office.

"The risk has not been well managed, but it's easy to say that perhaps with the benefit of hindsight," Mr Worth said.

The Public Access to Legislation project was announced in 2000 and described by then Attorney-General Margaret Wilson as an "excellent example of e-Government in action".

The Government approved it based on an estimated cost of $5.19 million to get the system going, but after stage one that was revised to $8.17 million.

The expected costs to operate the system also increased to $1.13 million from $782,000.

Stage two, which involved putting a database of legislation on the internet and coming up with a new drafting tool for law drafters, was targeted for completion by the end of 2002.

But in 2003 the project was halted for a technical review, and it was two years before an announcement was made that the office and Unisys had agreed to resume it.

The overall cost incurred by the office as a result of that delay was about $7.3 million, and the Cabinet approved capital funding of $6.18 million and total operational funding of $9.10 million to get the project back under way.

The target completion date was set at late this year, which later became early next year, and last week that became "around mid-2007".

Mr Tanner said the new date was not a cast-iron assurance, but Unisys had expressed confidence it could overcome the technical issues.

There should be a clearer picture of how the project is going in December when systems integration testing is completed, he said.

"It hasn't been an easy time," Mr Tanner said. "We've faced some quite difficult issues over this and will continue to face them."