AUSTRALIA GOVERNMENT AGENCY PAYING FOR LEASED COMPUTERS AT HEALTH DEPARTMENT THAT ARE LOST OR STOLENHealth Dept pays for laptops after leases up. 09/06/2005. ABC News OnlineHealth Dept pays for laptops after leases up
By Andrew Fowler from the ABC's investigative unit

The federal Health Department has been paying thousands of dollars to lease IBM laptop computers which it does not have, according to documents seen by the ABC.

Some of the computers have been lost, others stolen and in a number of cases the department continued to pay for laptops even though their leases were finished.

According to internal documents sighted by the ABC, the Department of Health says it kept paying for some laptops after their leases ended because it did not keep a record of the dates the leases finished.

The department said incorrect invoicing by IBM involving nearly 100 laptops and tens of thousands of dollars had continued for at least the past four years.

It was not just a problem of when the leases ended: some of the computers the department was paying for were no longer being used.

They had been reported as lost, stolen or damaged.

According to the documents, the majority of the computers the department was paying for were useless for the type of work the department did.

In a statement to the ABC, the department rejected this.

But an asset managers' report the ABC has seen said: "In the majority of cases these laptops are not compatible with the current XP environment and are functionally redundant."

'Not good enough'

Opposition health spokeswoman Julia Gillard says money has been going to waste.

"It's hard-earned taxpayers' dollars that end up being spent on projects like this," she said.

"There has got to be a better way than having a major department like the Department of Health entering into arrangements where it ends up paying lease payments when it shouldn't and not knowing where all its laptops are."

According to the internal documents, the department and IBM are working together to resolve the issues and agree on adjustments to payments that appear to have been inappropriately made.

"It's a standard that a small business wouldn't adopt," Ms Gillard said. "It's not good enough for the Department of Health.

"These are very simple asset management issues, keeping paperwork, knowing what's going on and even that very basic administrative task appears to have gone well and truly awry."

Health Minister Tony Abbot's office declined to comment and instead referred the ABC to the Department of Health.

In a statement, the department played down the problem, admitting that it had been charged for some lost and stolen laptops but only in last April's invoices.

The statement said the mistake had been discovered and IBM was raising a credit to repay the department.

However, IBM said the company was currently reviewing the matter with the department and would take appropriate action as required.