Half a billion dollars is an enormous amount of money.
$500 million dollars is almost a third of Police’s annual budget.
It is 100 times what the Government spends on advisory and information services for ethnic communities.
It is a year’s wages for 4150 experienced nurses and 4150 experienced secondary school teachers as well.
It is the amount that the National Government will spend on potential overruns to upgrade the tax computer of Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
Yes, you read that correctly: Overruns, on top of $1 billion that they have already cost.
I was Information and Communication Technology Minister under the Labour Government and I am an honorary fellow of the Institute of IT Professionals NZ.
As Health Minister, I oversaw projects to bring better information sharing and collaboration through technologies in our hospitals.
I take keen interest in significant computer system overhauls.
Irresponsible act
I am genuinely shocked at the way in which the Government has allowed itself to go 50% over budget. It is just not precise enough and an irresponsible commitment of taxpayers’ money.
I want to be clear that Labour agrees that IRD’s ‘First’ mainframe must be replaced. It was established purely to collect tax but as our world has gotten more complex, other functions such as child support have been bolted into the system.
Members of our Indian community are visible leaders in ICT. Labour knows that technologically savvy businesspeople and the younger generation expect to manage their tax affairs online.
Labour shares their aspiration to be the world leader in online government.
But change requires prudent planning and a clear focus on controlling costs, because our tax system cannot fail, even for one day.
National has racked up an astronomical debt to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest New Zealanders. Sadly, we need the tax system to work so that we can repay the country’s creditors.
Need for fairness
But there is a moral imperative, too. That is fairness.
Most people are decent and care about their communities. But there will always be a few bad apples that break laws and take advantage of others.
New Zealand’s tax system must be well designed to ensure that those people pay their fair share of tax, just as you and I do.
Therefore, the half a billion dollar ‘vague zone’ in the IRD upgrade is a real cause for concern. No shopkeeper would think it is acceptable for their rent to cost 50% more than their budget. It is not different to the IRD upgrade, and so it appears that there is real risk in the way this project has been set up.
Expert opinion
Indeed, experts from KPMG reviewed the plan last year, and here is what they said:
“We do not believe the timeline presented… is achievable. A programme of this complexity, where scoping and articulation of long-list options, a robust options assessment (critical for Treasury support) and the programme’s design (i.e. ordering of tranches and projects) have not yet occurred.”
The National Government is taking an enormous risk, with your money.
That is not fair to you or any taxpayer.
I will closely follow the project rollout.
David Cunliffe is elected Member of Parliament from New Lynn. He is the Labour Party’s Revenue Spokesperson. The above article is exclusive to Indian Newslink.
