The Digital Transformation Agency is blaming human error for a stuff-up that saw the developers of the failed COVIDSafe app overpaid by almost $400,000.

The DTA made duplicate payments to the developers of the tracking app on two separate occasions, an audit has revealed.

In a report released last week the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) said a payment of $275, 000 was made to the supplier, Delv, by the the DTA finance team on October 8, 2020. The same invoice was paid again on October 20.

Another invoice for $105,600 was also paid twice on February 16, 2021, for a total of $211,200.

The ANAO said when it alerted the DTA to the errors in March 2022 the  DTA admitted the duplicate payments hadn’t been picked up by its finance team or the supplier, and were most likely the result of human error.

“The DTA advised that while their financial management software should have displayed an error message identifying a potential duplicate payment, this could have been overridden,” auditor Grant Hehir said.

The DTA told ANAO it was working with Delv on a repayment schedule, but as at 18 August 2022, the DTA had not reached any agreement  on a repayment plan or recovered any of the funds.

Only one supplier approached

The audit also reveals that procurement for development of the COVIDSafe app was one of seven digital marketplace procurements where only one supplier was approached.

The DTA’s rationale for approaching only one supplier for the app was that it was an urgent requirement to support the Covid-19 response, the report says.

 DTA’s internal finance team told the business area that because the procurement was COVID-19-related, ‘we can bypass the usual process’.

Also, the supplier had already been engaged by the Department of Health to develop the COVIDSafe App before responsibility for developing the app was transferred to the DTA.

The DTA said running the procurement process through the Digital Marketplace allowed the seller to transition from Department of Health to the DTA.

The Labor government announced in August that it had deleted the “wasteful and ineffective” app, which cost more than $21 million but only identified two positive COVID-19 cases and 17 close contacts since it was launched in April 2020.
 
The Department of Health says it is working to delete all COVIDSafe app data as soon as possible, and no COVIDSafe app data will be retained.

Push notifications and SMS texts will be sent to any remaining users informing them the COVIDSafe app is no longer in use and encouraging them to delete the app from their devices.
 

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@governmentnews.com.au.  

Sign up to the Government News newsletter