Perhaps this is telling us that the financial losses and inefficiencies incurred from these supposedly error-prone processes are small enough (relative speaking at least most of the time) that there’s no real consequences to the stakeholders (politicians or bureaucrats in this instance) or the survival of the organisation (this org isn’t for-profit after all). So from the stakeholders’ POV it just doesn’t justify putting the investment upfront into proper software systems. Without greater accountability and real stake in the org from the politicians and bureaucrats, headlines like this will continue to appear in the decades to come.
Headlines like this are more pleasant than headlines about how the $100M project to implement SAP is five years behind schedule, how Deloitte has consumed tens of millions of dollars that could have gone to patient care, or that the new ERP system has lead to a total lack of accountability for patient outcomes.
It's all about risk. Maybe you can run Finance on a spreadsheet and get away with it, and maybe you can survive driving without wearing a seatbelt too.
