Services Australia has “largely” managed the risks to the country’s Centrelink IT system during its billion-dollar redevelopment over the last five years, the national auditor has found.
But the original objectives of the welfare payment infrastructure transformation program are now “at risk” due to delays to decommissioning the 30-year-old income security integrated system (ISIS).
In an audit [pdf] released late on Thursday, the Australian National Audit Office said risk management arrangements deployed to continue operating the Centrelink system during the WPIT program were “largely appropriate”.
The seven-year program is now in the final leg, with Services Australia focused on improving disability, carers and families payments and decommissioning the Model 204 database used to deliver 62 million transactions each day by July 2022.
The report found Services Australia had “established and maintained a risk management framework at the entity and group levels”, including at the CIO group-level, that applied to the entire ICT environment, including welfare payment systems.
It had also “managed” risks around payment correctness and…
