United

Sea cargo industry was ill-prepared for A$205m ICS implementation

Friday, 15 September 2006
CUSTOMS says it has accepted all the recommendations in the Booz Allen Hamilton review of the Integrated Cargo System (ICS), but the federal opposition has claimed the minister responsible is left with “egg on his face”.

Senator Joe Ludwig, shadow minister for Justice and Customs, said the release of the review into what he described as “the disastrous implementation of the Customs Cargo Management Re-engineering project” showed the new system had:

• Failed to expedite sea cargo by any measure — despite costing A$205 million
• Failed to deliver streamlined and simplified dealings with Customs
• Failed to deliver on improved security via cargo profiling
• Failed to deliver any cost efficiencies.
Senator Ludwig also claimed the new system was more cumbersome to use than the old system that was built in the 1970s.
Yet, he said, Customs minister Senator Ellison had promised in Parliament that the new system would result in “the greatest reforms to the Australian Customs Service since Federation”.
The opposition Customs minister said the review found:
• “Almost immediately...it caused disruption to the nation’s ports - cargo was delayed and containers piled up on wharves causing delay in delivery.”
• “...both the exports and imports modules were dogged by a series of postponements and delays.”
• “Customs continued to introduce changes to the software up until 6 October — only one week prior to the go-live date.”
• “The Help Desk was overwhelmed by...additional traffic and was unable to handle the volume, resulting in many calls being unanswered”.

Customs chief executive officer Michael Carmody later said Customs would establish a new management structure to oversee future ICS development and create an additional deputy chief executive officer position responsible for delivering the recommendations outlined in the Booz Allen Hamilton report.
HACTL
Cathay Cargo
United

Sea cargo industry was ill-prepared for A$205m ICS implementation

Friday, 15 September 2006
CUSTOMS says it has accepted all the recommendations in the Booz Allen Hamilton review of the Integrated Cargo System (ICS), but the federal opposition has claimed the minister responsible is left with “egg on his face”.

Senator Joe Ludwig, shadow minister for Justice and Customs, said the release of the review into what he described as “the disastrous implementation of the Customs Cargo Management Re-engineering project” showed the new system had:

• Failed to expedite sea cargo by any measure — despite costing A$205 million
• Failed to deliver streamlined and simplified dealings with Customs
• Failed to deliver on improved security via cargo profiling
• Failed to deliver any cost efficiencies.
Senator Ludwig also claimed the new system was more cumbersome to use than the old system that was built in the 1970s.
Yet, he said, Customs minister Senator Ellison had promised in Parliament that the new system would result in “the greatest reforms to the Australian Customs Service since Federation”.
The opposition Customs minister said the review found:
• “Almost immediately...it caused disruption to the nation’s ports - cargo was delayed and containers piled up on wharves causing delay in delivery.”
• “...both the exports and imports modules were dogged by a series of postponements and delays.”
• “Customs continued to introduce changes to the software up until 6 October — only one week prior to the go-live date.”
• “The Help Desk was overwhelmed by...additional traffic and was unable to handle the volume, resulting in many calls being unanswered”.

Customs chief executive officer Michael Carmody later said Customs would establish a new management structure to oversee future ICS development and create an additional deputy chief executive officer position responsible for delivering the recommendations outlined in the Booz Allen Hamilton report.
HACTL
Cathay Cargo
HACTL
Cathay Cargo