Accountants have demanded compensation for the havoc caused to their businesses by the failure of Australian taxation office computer systems.
The federal government’s tax portal, website and other online services have been frequently unavailable, causing significant disruption to agents and accountants.
The tax office has sought to blame the provider of its storage systems, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and recently suggested it may have breached its contractual requirements.
The Institute of Public Accountants, which largely represents small accounting firms, has demanded any compensation should flow to affected businesses.
The institute’s general manager for communications, Wayne Debernardi, said the failure of the ATO’s systems had left staff unable to work during a traditionally busy period. When services did come back online, he said, staff were forced to work overtime to catch up, creating additional costs for businesses.
He said the financial losses of each business should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and each compensated appropriately, regardless of whether the tax office or HPE was liable.
The institute had made its case for compensation clear to the federal government. “We’ve put it on the table, we’re put it forward, and if they are going to get compensation from their provider ... there’s no question that the business world that has been affected should receive it,” Debernardi told Guardian Australia.
The task would prove mammoth for the federal government, and adds yet another headache caused by the litany of tech failures in recent months. The government is conducting reviews, internally and externally through PricewaterhouseCoopers, about the failures and their source.
An ATO spokeswoman said the agency would continue to operate on a “no detriment basis for our clients”. She said the agency would consider all compensation claims made.
“Our immediate focus in the aftermath of these outages has been on resuming normal services for our key impacted stakeholders and the broader community,” the spokeswoman said.
“There are a number of factors we will need to consider moving forward. As you know we have engaged PwC to undertake an independent review into the outages, and this will assist us in determining our next steps.”
The tax office has already sought to attribute blame to HPE. Tax commissioner Chris Jordan said in a statement this week: “Initial indications are there has been a failure by Hewlett Packard Enterprise to provide contracted services in a reliable way and ensure stability of our systems.
“I can assure the community that we are taking this seriously and it has the highest priority. I have already met a number of times with the most senior HPE representatives in the region and corresponded with their CEO to ensure they are aware of the disruption and damage this kind of event causes and remind them of their contractual arrangements.”
He said initial indications were that the failures were caused by faulty hardware. The ATO bought new storage systems late last year from HPE. It has repeatedly stated that the shutdowns have not caused a loss of data.
Debernardi said the results of the dual reviews should be shared with the institute’s members. “Our stance is quite simple – that conversation should be passed on to our members, to the accountants who we represent,” he said.
The tax office has maintainted the problems with its storage systems will not delay processing of tax returns after the end of the financial year.
“We are absolutely confident that taxpayers will be able to lodge their returns and receive refunds on time from 1 July,” Jordan said.
