Australia American outsourcer causes havoc at Aussie ports

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Customs reviews cargo problem James Riley FEBRUARY 14, 2006

CUSTOMS chief Michael Carmody has commissioned a consultants' report on the agency's troubled cargo systems just as the government audit office starts its own investigation of the disastrous implementation.

Booz Allen Hamilton will complete a "forward-looking" overview of the Australian Customs Service' Integrated Cargo System in April.

In addition to chronicling lessons that could be learned from projects litany of problems, Booz Allen Hamilton will also identify how the system "might be further enhanced to maximise benefits for both government and industry".

The Australian National Audit Office, meanwhile, confirmed yesterday it would conduct its own investigation of the Customs Debt Management Re-engineering project (CMR), of which the ICS is a major component.

The ANAO will look at implementation problems buttociated with the system roll-out, including delays, cost over-runs and performance issues related to the $230 million CMR.

"Customs will cooperate fully with the ANAO and expects lessons to be learned as a result of the audit," Mr Carmody said.

The ICS caused mbuttive problems for the import-export industry when it went live last October, with processing delays causing mbuttive backlogs and stockpiling of containers at ports across Australia.

"This (Booz Allen Hamilton) review is about looking to the future," Mr Carmody said.

"We will share the outcomes with industry and work with it to agree on a way forward."

"The primary purpose of the review is to identify opportunities to maximise the benefits of the ICS to both industry and Customs," he said.

Opposition Customs spokesman Joe Ludwig welcomed the appointment of an independent consultant to review the system, but said government should ensure it is a "warts and all" investigation.

Mr Ludwig called on Justice and Customs Minister Chris Ellison to garantee that whistleblowers within industry and Customs won't be targeted for speaking out about faults in the system.

"If the Minister is serious about looking to the future, he must ensure that the full truth about the problems with the system, including his own failures and that of his department, are made public," Mr Ludwig said.

The review should be given the power to recommend that Customs compensate individual businesses that were adversely affected by the ICS' slow running times, outages and initial switch-on failures, he said.