Centrelink’s ambitious $191 million entitlements calculation engine (ECE), constructed by Infosys and based on Pega, saw a mere 784 claims processed by late June this year before being officially abandoned by the government the following month.
The primary objective of the Pega-driven ECE was to determine the eligibility of welfare recipients and calculate the appropriate welfare disbursements, explained government services minister Bill Shorten. However, its deployment was limited to handling aged pension claims, operating in a “shadow” mode alongside the existing calculation engine to parallelly validate calculations.
The government’s decision to terminate the ECE in late July came with a stark observation that despite the substantial investment of $191 million, there was no functional calculation engine to show for it.
Recent information released as part of Senate inquiries on notice has shed light on the limited extent of the ECE’s utilization prior to its abandonment. Specifically, as of June 22, 2023, a total of 784 claims had been processed through the ECE project, according to Services Australia.
Services Australia also divulged that a “solutions design review” phase for the ECE had been initiated shortly before Christmas the previous year. A comprehensive final report was subsequently circulated to senior executives at Services Australia for their review and input.
It was revealed that the ECE had initially been allocated a total funding of $299.8 million under the welfare payment infrastructure transformation (WPIT) program. Out of this, $191 million had been expended on the project before its termination.