Shadow Assistant Treasurer, Peter Cain, has lambasted the ACT Labor-Greens government for wasting $76 million of ACT taxpayers’ money so far on a new human resources management system that has been abandoned.

Mr Cain directed a number of questions without notice to the Special Minister of State in the ACT Legislative Assembly this afternoon, which followed the publication of his response to a previous Question on Notice

“It has become exceedingly clear that Canberrans simply cannot trust the Special Minister of State to deliver on projects after yet another example of waste and mismanagement under his leadership,” Mr Cain said.

“The government brought in 23 contractors to work on this project at a cost of $44,539,773 since 2016 to deliver absolutely nothing.

“In conjunction with the $31,200,372 spent in-house by the ACT Public Service on staffing, labour hire, hospitality and advertising costs, this project signifies one of the worst mismanagements of public funds in ACT history.

“The Special Minister of State claimed in Budget Estimates last year that this program would generate long-term savings. There is clearly much more that needs to be explained and the Special Minister of State needs to be upfront with Canberrans for once.

“The path back to surplus for the ACT budget will be driven by effective value-for-money procurement not wasting tens of millions of public funds on abandoned projects.

“In the past, Ministers, even Chief Ministers, have resigned for less, the Special Minister of State needs to take a good long hard look at himself over such wastage,” Mr Cain concluded.