Qld Health payroll worker charged over fake overtime claims

Not only did Queensland Health's notorious botched IT upgrade cost the state upwards of a billion dollars: it's also alleged that the chaos created an opportunity for a dodgy worker to siphon tens of thousands of dollars from the department.

The state's Crime and Misconduct Commission is alleging 46 counts of fraud against an unnamed 35-year-old Caboolture woman, totalling more than $AU36,000 in payments she should not have received.

The alleged fraud occurred in the wash-up to the failed systems upgrade during 2010 and 2011. At that time, Queensland Health was in the throes of trying to set right a project that went so badly wrong it landed in a commission of inquiry. That commission later resulted in IBM being barred from Queensland state government projects.

In an effort to try and fix the problems, which included staff being paid late, incorrectly, or not at all, Queensland Health and its contractors had to hire an army of people to try and keep things ticking over.

The CMC statement says, “The former public servant was appointed to help manage an increased workload following the introduction of the new health payroll system in March 2010 … The CMC will allege she made 46 fraudulent claims for overtime and penalty payments between May 2010 and August 2011.” ®