Economy
Aurora’s $50m cost blowout
TASMANIAN householders may end up paying for a multi-million-dollar cost blowout associated with the bungled rollout of a new billing system at Aurora Energy.
With costs for the system predicted to blow out from $15million to a massive $50 million, Tasmanians are likely to pay for the shortfall through their power bills.
It comes at a time when Tasmanian power prices already have jumped more than 30 per cent in the past three years, with concerns that electricity costs could soar a further 12-20 per cent from July.
The energy utility confirmed there had been major delays in the introduction of the Oracle Customer Care and Billing System, which was supposed to go live in September 2008.
However, the company would not comment on information from well-placed sources that the cost of the project had blown out to $50 million.
Up to 40 staff and contractors are working on the project while consultants from as far away as the US, Philippines, India and Hong Kong are understood to have been flown in at Aurora’s expense to assist with the changeover.
The situation is reminiscent of the Motor Registry farce in October 2008 when multiple licences were sent to more than 3000 drivers due to a malfunctioning $20 million software system.
Aurora public relations manager Richard Wilson would not say when, or whether, the new billing system would come online.
The deadline for completion is believed to have been pushed out at least five times already.