Bureaucrats told a board overseeing the digital health record that the program was under budget but it ended up being $40 million over.
An audit found there was inconsistent and misleading reporting to the board, with the project going millions of dollars over budget.
A series of audits into the digital health record project and ACT Health's digital solutions division have revealed cost blowouts and serious financial risks with the program.
The project is expected to be more than $160 million over the initial budget and bureaucrats may have wrongly paid invoices to a company hosting the record.
One report from KPMG, conducted this year, found the program's board was told in March 2023 recurrent expenditure was underspent but only four months later there was an overspend of $40 million for the 2022-23 financial year.
"Throughout the program, there was inconsistency between program financial reporting and ACT Health Directorate financial report," the report said.
"There were also aspects of the financial reporting to the program board which did not accurately reflect the actual financial position of the program."
The digital health record collated 40 separate paper and digital records into the one system, and is used to manage individual health records. It came into place in late-2022.
The KPMG report found there were "under-defined roles and responsibilities" in the governance of the program.
The report said ACT Health's chief financial officer was not a member of the board and "so was not involved to the extent necessary for a program with a material impact on ACT Health Directorate's financial position".
There was also a review undertaken by Treasury and senior officials from health. The results of this report were not tabled by Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith as she said it was being considered by cabinet. But she said this also found inconsistencies and misleading reports to the board.
"Reporting to the board was inconsistent and at times misleading, and project risk was not adequately documented, actively managed or appropriately escalated," she said.
Ms Stephen-Smith told the Assembly she had been advised in October 2022, a month before the digital health record went live, there was an underspend in the operational expenditure of the project.
Ms Stephen-Smith came under attack from the opposition over her knowledge of the financial issues with the rollout of the digital health record. She said she did question the financial implications of the project before it went live.
"I did question the presentation of financial implications in the brief, noting the need to better understand annual expected and actual expenditure to know if the project was really on track financially," she said.
"At this time, DSD was advising an underspend in operational expenditure. Of course, we know that it became apparent after go-live that the project and DSD's budget overall was in fact overspent."
The report recommended the establishment of a central provision for financial information to ensure consistency and accuracy. Health authorities agreed to this recommendation and a new digital finance committee will start in September 2024.
The chief financial officer will also be included in the program board in the future.
