A software project at the Saskatchewan Workers Compensation Board (WCB) went over budget by 64% ($13 million), but apparently no one was held accountable.

Yes, there were no suspensions, demotions, dismissals or pay cuts as a result of the huge cost overrun. At least that’s what the WCB says.

The project in question is referred to as the FINEOS upgrade and involves the claims program used by WCB staff. FINEOS won the tender back in November, 2009 for the new WCB system.

News of the FINEOS “upgrade” came to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation through a whistleblower a little while ago. I eventually filed a few information requests on the project and received some documents from the WCB in April that showed truth to the allegations.

As you can see in this document (click here) the claims program upgrade was supposed to cost ratepayers $20.3 million. However, the end project came in around $33.2 million; 64% higher than expected.

I tried following up with the government for more information, but have hit a bit of a brick wall.

For example, I asked for info on the number of firms that initially bid and what their amounts were; the WCB says that’ll cost $120. I also asked for documents provided to the board on the matter, but that’ll cost $90. I've been advised that a couple other information requests will require longer than necessary to respond. We'll see what those turn up.

In the mean time, further contact with the whistleblower suggested that some on the inside were held accountable for the mishap…although the whistleblower thought perhaps the wrong people felt the pain. Either way, could a dismissal or pay cut here and there really make up for a $13 million overrun? Not really. It would steal mean ratepayers were on the hook for an extra $13 million.

Ideally, the goal isn’t just to hold someone accountable for the mishap, but to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Hopefully the forthcoming documents from the WCB show evidence that they’ve learned from the mistake and can prevent such a problem from happening again.

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