New Customs system 'not another Novopay'

The merging of the computer systems for Customs and the Ministry for Primary Industries was supposed to be finished by the end of 2012. Photo / iStock

A major IT project that took four years longer than originally planned and is almost $30 million over the initial budget is not another Novopay, Customs says.

The agency has also revealed that an independent person has been brought in to chair a governance group for its Joint Border Management System (JBMS) - but says that is not a sign of any strain between it and other parties including IBM.

JBMS merged the computer systems of Customs and the Ministry for Primary Industries, and was supposed to be finished by the end of 2012 at a cost of $75.9 million.

The budget has since soared to $104.1 million, and the old IT system JBMS replaced is still running alongside the new system.

Labour MP David Shearer grilled Carolyn Tremain, comptroller of Customs, about the project when she appeared before a select committee today.

"Isn't it a fact ... that CusMod has to be there, because you don't want another Novopay to be running through the Customs system? That is what pretty much everybody in town is saying," Mr Shearer said, referring to the Ministry of Education's troubled payroll system.

Ms Tremain said that was not correct.

"This is a system that has over 2.7 million transactions through it, it has been operating for two years ... it doesn't have the hallmarks of a failing system."

In June 2012 it was decided to split the first stage of JBMS into multiple steps, because of the risk of problems if too much was transferred at once.

After her appearance, Ms Tremain rejected any comparison to Novopay, and said nothing was wrong with the system.

"I wouldn't change the roll-out at all, in fact, I think we have significantly de-risked it."

Ms Tremain said the extra money needed for the project had come from within Customs' and MPI's existing capital investment baselines.

She was "very satisfied" with the performance of IBM, and said the change to the governance group arrangements did not indicate any tension or problems.

"Originally the chair of the governance arrangements was a Customs person. Obviously we are balancing issues between Customs, MPI and what IBM want to do as our vendor, and sometimes having somebody who is neutral is a good thing."