One West Australian public servant spent about $40 million more than they were delegated to, on a mismanaged IT contract, the state's director general of health says.
A day after a damning auditor-general's report into the WA health department's centralised computing services contract was handed down, director general David Russell-Weisz admitted a failure of governance and contract management had occurred.
Dr Russell-Weisz said two employees had spent "well above their delegations", with one - entrusted with a $100,000 expenditure limit - spending more than $40 million on variations to the contract.
"These people went above it, and they certainly shouldn't have ... and they went above it to a significant level, an unacceptable level," Dr Russell-Weisz told 6PR Radio.
He said internal reviews had been conducted into the variations, which blew out from $44 million to $81 million, but the findings had not reached senior management.
"There were some internal reviews at the time that didn't make it to the `senior senior executive' it appears. And I make no excuse for that - that was not acceptable," he said.
Acting auditor-general Glen Clarke found a series of irregularities and weaknesses in the contract's management resulting in millions of wasted taxpayer dollars, including the health department paying $90,000 per month to store $3.3 million worth of unused IT equipment.
WA Premier Colin Barnett said the government had been "notoriously bad" at handling IT contracts, but expensive mismanagement was not contained to the public sector.
"It has been one problem after another going on for several years," he told ABC Radio.
"Government is not alone. Big companies have had similar experiences, to be honest, but you don't hear about them."
The public servant at the centre of the controversy has left the department, while the opposition has taken aim at health minister Kim Hames, saying more people need to be held to account.
"This is a bewildering case of neglect, of incompetence and the minister should go as a result of this neglect," opposition health spokesman Roger Cook said in parliament.
"If this was in any other sector of our community, be it the not-for-profit or profit sector, heads would have rolled."
But Dr Hames dismissed the comments, saying he could not oversee the actions of every department employee.
"I do not have control of people who break the law, or break the requirements of the health department, but I do take responsibility for management of the system," Dr Hames said.
The Corruption and Crime Commission has identified serious failings within the department, but found no basis to suspect serious misconduct by individual public officers.
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