Qld Treasury Corp abandons core IT project

Queensland's corporate treasury provider, Queensland Treasury Corporation (QTC), has walked away from a technology transformation initiative at a cost of $7.5 million, after reported delays and setbacks plagued the project.

QTC selected Temenos in 2009 to implement the T24 core banking system to better manage investment administration and improve on-lending services. At the time, the development of the T24 system for the QTC was heralded as something it could "easily integrate". The fairy tale was not to be true, however, after QTC said in a statement yesterday that it would no longer implement the Temenos T24 core banking system.

QTC dropped the Temenos contract after what it calls a "strategic review of the project's objectives, which identified a desired change in the project's direction", adding that the functionality developed as part of the project would be integrated into a system that QTC staff would develop internally.

The Brisbane Times reported that the contract was canned after ongoing delays during the development process.

Queensland's Shadow ICT Minister Ros Bates yesterday seized on this information and launched an attack against the government, labelling the contract termination as another example of a "Labor IT disaster".

"Once again we are seeing evidence that major IT projects have cost Queensland taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more than they should have because of the incompetence of this tired, 20-year-old Labor government.

"Labor just can't get IT basics right and Queensland taxpayers are paying the price," Bates said in a statement.