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April 11th, 2013 
A FORMER IBM boss has denied urging bureaucrats to favour the global IT giant in competition for a lucrative Queensland Health payroll system contract.
An inquiry is investigating whether IBM, which won the contract, was given an unfair advantage over its rivals during the tender process.
Much of the evidence so far has centred on the role that contractor Terry Burns played in IBM’s success.
Mr Burns, who described himself as IBM’s former “top man” in South Africa, was tasked to review the state’s whole-of-government shared IT services in 2007.
His recommendation that one prime contractor should take care of the entire system led to IBM being pitted against four other vendors for the multimillion-dollar contract.
IBM’s flawed system, adopted in March 2010, led to thousands of Queensland Health employees being underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all.
The bungle is expected to cost taxpayers $1.2 billion.
The Queensland Health Payroll System Commission of Inquiry has heard Mr Burns favoured his former employer by giving it a “dry run” presentation to iron out faults before tender proposals were put to the government’s IT arm, CorpTech.
He was also said to have held secret meetings with IBM executives and urged a selection panel to change its scoring once it became clear that a rival company, Accenture, was the preferred vendor.
Mr Burns continued to deny the claims in his second day on the stand on Thursday.
He told the inquiry there was no “scoreboard” showing who was leading the tender process in 2007 and he had no idea Accenture was initially the preferred vendor.
Mr Burns also denied urging bureaucrats to look more favourably upon IBM’s proposal when Accenture was in the lead.
“I have absolutely no recollection of doing that,” he told the inquiry.
Mr Burns admitted he gave IBM a “dry run”.
But he said that was to help level the playing field, given rivals Accenture and Logica had a large presence in CorpTech through appointed contractors.
The same offer would have been made to all vendors, but IBM’s rivals were more able to have informal meetings with staff at CorpTech, he said.
“We were very anxious not to waste anyone’s time – we were running out of time – so we were keen they got the target clearly identified and they aimed their responses very specifically,” he said.
The inquiry, before Commissioner Richard Chesterman QC, continues on Friday.
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