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Released by the Department of Finance under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 FOI 22/104 - Document 04
Parliamentary Expenses Management System 
(PEMS) Project 

Steering Committee – Meeting Minutes 
Meeting Details 
Date: 
Thursday, 14 July 2022 
Time: 
11.00am to 12.00pm 
Venue: 
GovTEAMS video conference 
Attendees:  Ms. Clare Walsh – Chair 
Mr. John Sheridan – Project Executive 
Mr. Annwyn Godwin – Senior User, Independent Parliamentary Expenses 
Authority (IPEA) 
Mr. David De Silva – Senior User, Ministerial and Parliamentary Services 
(MaPS) 
Ms. Michelle Black – Senior Supplier, Service Delivery Office (SDO) 
Ms. Simon Quarrell – Member, Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) 
Mr. Peter Rush – Member, Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) 
Advisers 
s 22
– A/g PEMS Branch Director and Senior Supplier, ICTD
s 22
– PEMS A/g Director
s 22
– MaPS
Secretariat 
s 22
1. Meeting Opening
Summary 
Minutes 
The Minutes of the meeting of 16 June 2022 were accepted. 
Actions 
A109 – Project Office to circulate an updated diagram and/or table to clearly 
represent the current and proposed (“before and after”) governance 
structures and functions mapped to their respective future BAU forums: 
• The specified work has been completed and redistributed.
• Closed.
A110 – Project Office to report the management of all governance 
deliverables (including the final Gateway Review and Project Closure Report) 

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PEMS Steering Committee – Draft Meeting Minutes of 14/07/2022 
in the proposed governance structures when transitioning from Project to 
BAU: 
• This was included in the approved Governance Arrangements paper.
• The Table in Attachment A for the “Project Board Release 1” refers to the
expenditure reporting solution. After this, there will be successive
releases (quantity unknown at this time).
• Closed.
A111 – Project Office to update the Terms of Reference (ToRs) and 
membership arrangements of the proposed Governance Arrangements: 
• The draft ToRs for Change Authority was distributed to business areas on
8 July 2022, with feedback due by 19 July 2022.
• The Project are revising the ToRs for the Project Board and Steering
Committee to the extent needed and will distribute to members for review
prior to the subsequent meetings.
Closed Actions 
A109 & 110. 
The Chair acknowledged the significant delivery point that was reached as a 
result of the hard work undertaken by a range of stakeholders to ensure the 
Project went Live on 4 July 2022, with particular thanks to s 22
 – 
PEMS Branch Director – for her involvement in achieving this Milestone. 
Decisions 
The Steering Committee accepted the minutes from the previous meeting as 
well as the status of actions raised. 
Actions 
A112 – Confirm the Executive Management Committee and Management 
Board dotted line connection in the Governance Arrangements paper. 
2.
PEMS Delivery Update
Summary 
Phase 2 Status Report 

The Project Executive reiterated that Go-Live for Milestone 7.2 was
delivered and the Project is now in Hypercare to closely monitor issues
and resolve as they arise.

Hypercare is currently scheduled to continue until 4 August 2022, which
the Project believes will be sufficient to meet users’ needs.

If high priority issues continue beyond 4 August 2022 then a subsequent
Hypercare Release would occur.

The Project are currently investigating if this will be necessary.

The previous developer resources are no longer required in the Project
and are being progressively transitioned to SDO as a BAU resource.

The Project are focusing now on the upcoming Release 1 that must be
ready by 1 August 2022 to allow the first quarter period to be delivered.

IPEA identified the top 60 priorities from 91 expenditure reporting items.

Testing of the extracts component was removed from 7.2,
meaning more items may be discovered throughout Release 1.

The Project will also establish a high and detailed-level schedule to
address Release 1 delivery, with formal tracking and Schedule
Performance Index (SPI) reporting to commence next week.

Members proposed an extension to Hypercare may be necessary to cater
the increased demands across numerous helpdesks, in particular from
parliamentarians that will overlap with the upcoming sitting week.

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PEMS Steering Committee – Draft Meeting Minutes of 14/07/2022 
•  MaPS highlighted their willingness to provide funds for Hypercare 
resources beyond 4 August 2022, should this be required. 
•  Staff performing Hypercare duties will also support IPEA for the upcoming 
expenditure report work. 
•  IPEA advised that support calls are currently estimating 40-50 minutes to 
resolve as opposed to the standard 10-minute resolution time and 
requested more time is spent on the known and common issues. 
•  IPEA also proposed the risk rating for the expenditure reports be revisited 
as a result of Hypercare possibly being extended beyond 4 August 2022. 
•  The handover material is currently 78% completed, which the Project will 
discuss strategies to finalise the activity with SDO, as the resources who 
will create the material are also providing Hypercare duties. 
 
Risks and Issues 
•  13 Project Risks have been closed as a consequence of being redundant 
on the advent of Go-Live for such items relating to: 
•  Security failure; 
•  Loss of Executive sponsorship; 
•  Major system failure prior to implementation; and 
•  Data integrity. 
•  7 Project Risks were migrated to the BAU Risk Register that relate to: 
•  Loss of resources; 
•  Quality; 
•  Security failures (x2); 
•  Unaffordable enhancements; 
•  External users experiencing difficulty using PEMS post-Go-Live, 
and 
•  Support staff cannot manage the volume of calls post-Go-Live. 
•  Issue #32 – high priority items on the Backlog List are not delivered in 
association with 7.2 – has been closed and restructured to reflect possible 
unaffordable enhancements that is included in the BAU Risk Register. 
•  IPEA recommended increasing Risk #70 – remaining Expenditure Report 
functionality cannot be completed by the end of September 2022 – from 
Medium to High as a result of the allocated staff who are supporting 
Hypercare in addition to delivering the expenditure reporting tasks. 
•  However, Risk #70 relates to Risk #29 and has therefore been closed and 
absorbed into Risk #29. 
•  IPEA noted a lack of confidence in the Project avoiding Risk #29 due to 
the former decision to not complete some testing within Release 1 
delivery which would increase the likelihood of the risk being realised. 
•  Members advised that the added pressures to Risk #29 will be reviewed 
in more depth by the PEMS Project Board to mutually decide the most 
suitable approach in association with Finance’s risk framework. 
•  The reputational risk would become High for IPEA should expenditure 
reporting not be delivered in time. 
•  MaPS staff are enquiring to the adjusted layout of recording and reporting 
office expenses which is currently free text and the work needed to avoid 
possible risk to political sensitivities and process inefficiencies in 
producing the expenditure report by replacing with a drop down option. 
•  The Project Executive reminded members that the business can request 
Backlog items be reprioritised and delivered earlier should they wish to. 
•  The Project Executive advised that no further Risks or Issues rated higher 
than any existing ratings have been submitted and staff will continue to 
work towards resolution of these matters by continuously managing them. 

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PEMS Steering Committee – Draft Meeting Minutes of 14/07/2022 
Phase 1 Production Support Update 
•  The Project production report highlighted the drop in claims while the 
system was closed from 27 June to 3 July 2022, the increase in claims 
when the system was online as well as separate effects due to post-
election changes. 
•  While there is an increase in calls, the team are delivering a steady 
number of call resolutions. 
•  An increase in aged open calls has occurred and is reported regularly, 
however this is anticipated to decrease. 
•  Most claims are being created and processed successfully with minimal 
issues that are being managed, with daily monitoring of performance with 
assistance from SAP for items that are particularly resource intensive. 
•  MaPS payments are currently being manually validated however this is 
expected to revert to an automatic process in the immediate future. 
•  Strong engagement between technical and business staff is progressing. 
•  SDO have implemented hardware upgrades to double the amount of 
memory which has improved performance. 
•  A coding issue that extracted the claimant rather than the vendor in for 
ten paid office expenses was affecting nine parliamentarians, however 
this was recovered swiftly after identifying the matter. 
•  The testing process has also been enhanced to avoid this error in 
the future. 
•  A technical fix is underway to fine-tune existing problems when creating a 
new vendor submitted by a claimant, particularly with the connection 
between the DESE gateway and the system as the email appears to be 
unauthorised which is false. 
•  Vendor file uploads for PEMS and EMS will be finalised next week. 
•  A CabCharge verification matter is being worked through with SDO. 
 
Hypercare 
•  20 items have been identified for remediation which will be resolved 
incrementally, with parliamentarian and other internal user experience as 
a significant factor in assessing and remediating the known issues. 
•  Known delays in processing claims that were previously actioned quicker 
are also monitored regularly to track gradual speed improvements 
following subsequent upgrades. 
•  An issue with EMS in relation to staff in deferral periods and claiming 
international travel has resulted in significant travel costs not being 
reimbursed to clients for over a month. 
•  Consistent data in EMS and PEMS is critical to ensure continuity 
and minimal discomfort for users when resolving. 
Decisions 
The Steering Committee accepted the Project update and the integrated 
schedule.  
Actions 
Nil 
3.  Financial Position 
Summary 
•  The Financial Position as at 30 June 2022 was presented to the Board. 
•  The Project’s preliminary end of financial year report for 2021-22 was 
tabled and the final position will be received within CFOB’s timeline. 
Decisions 
The Steering Committee accepted the 30 June 2022 Financial Position.  
Actions 
Nil 

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PEMS Steering Committee – Draft Meeting Minutes of 14/07/2022 
4.  Other Business 
Summary 
•  Members received the final version of the PEMS Governance 
Arrangements paper. 
•  The Chair mentioned that s 22
 will be leaving PEMS as the 
A/g Assistant Secretary at the end of July and has contributed immensely 
in delivering the Project by successfully engaging with the huge range of 
business stakeholders. The Chair and Steering Committee Members 
thanked s 22  for her extraordinary effort throughout the entire Project. 
•  The Chair will return to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade at the 
end of this week and will no longer be the PEMS Steering Committee 
Chair. Members provided their thanks and gratitude to the Chair for her 
success in driving robust governance throughout their time in the Project. 
Decisions 
The Steering Committee agreed the final version of the PEMS Governance 
Arrangements paper. 
Actions 
Nil 
The meeting closed at 11:49am.  

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Phase 1 
•  A weekly dashboard is distributed to Senior Users. There are no issues of concern. 
This will be updated to incorporate Phase 2 aspects.  
Phase 2 
Support 
 
 
•  Hypercare commenced 4 July, daily monitoring and issue tracking is occurring 
Organisation 
 
 
and a daily dashboard is distributed to Senior Users.  
•  The surge team are in place and supporting users.  
•  An update on the high severity issues will be tabled at the Committee meeting. 
 
Other 
N/A 
N/A 
•   
 
 

Legend: On Target 
Alert 
Escalate 
Overall 
 
 
 
Green Light Criterion = All green, 
or only one amber with no red 
 
 
 
Amber Light Criterion = More 
than one amber but no red 
Issues are likely to affect the 
Issues will have a significant effect 
Identified issues being managed and 
Red Light Criterion = One or more 
implementation effort if action is 
on the implementation effort if 
updated regularly  
red 
not taken and managed  
action is not taken and managed  
Report Date: 5 Aug 2022  
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ATTACHMENT 3. HIGH LEVEL SCHEDULE FOR PHASE 2 
 
 
 
 
 
Report Date: 5 Aug 2022  
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ATTACHMENT 4. HIGH LEVEL SCHEDULE FOR RELEASE 1 (EXPENDITURE REPORTING) 
 
 
Report Date: 5 Aug 2022  
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Steering Committee Meeting – 14 July 2022 
Parliamentary Expenses Management System 
Recommended actions  
It is recommended that you: 
1. 
Accept the status of actions. 
2. 
Accept the project update and integrated project schedule:  
a. 
Refer Project Status Report as at 11 July.  
• 
On 30 June, the project received a Go decision to proceed with PEMS Phase 2 
go live.   
• 
PEMS Phase 2 had a soft launch on 3 July and was officially released on 4 July 
2022. 
b. 
Risks and issues: 
• 
Risks were reviewed in light of the go-live and the transition to BAU operational 
arrangements.  
 
5 risks remain open and have been updated to cover delivery of the 
remaining functionality for expenditure reporting 
 
13 risks have been closed 
 
10 risks created on the BAU register 
• 
There is one open issue (26) for benefits realisation that wil  be managed as 
part of the project closure process. 
c. 
Schedule – Post Go live Hypercare update. Business areas and the project are 
working closely to manage issues during the Hypercare period. Significant issues in the 
past week: 
• 
On 6 July, an overnight HR record sync to the BW component failed and 
resulted in no data shown to internal users when accessing PEMS. This issue 
was quickly resolved allowing work to continue. Daily monitoring of the sync is 
occurring.  
• 
On 7 July, a coding error in the system resulted in 10 claims being incorrectly 
paid to 9 parliamentarians instead of their suppliers for the office expenses.  
The coding issue was resolved before start of business on 8 July. Actions are in 
progress to ful y remediate the effects of the issue. 
• 
The system performance experience for internal users is not optimal. A 
hardware upgrade for the BWP data base was undertaken on 9 July resulting in 
some improvement. Monitoring of ‘expensive’ processes is occurring with 
further actions being undertaken, where appropriate, during the hypercare 
period. 
• 
A summary of issues and their status wil  be tabled at the meeting on 14 Jul 
22. 
3. 
Note the end of financial year result for 2021-22. 
 
OFFICIAL 
 
 
 

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