Queensland child safety IT bungle worsens

Last week, it was revealed that 644 cases of suspected abuse were not passed on to police because a new reporting system, introduced in January, was not tested properly before it went live

A senior Queensland bureaucrat has stood down amid growing embarrassment over the IT glitch that resulted in the mishandling of hundreds of cases of suspected child abuse in public schools.

Last week, it was revealed that 644 cases of suspected abuse were not passed on to police because a new reporting system, introduced in January, was not tested properly before it went live.

A political blame has game ensued, with the Labor government accusing the Liberal National Party of bungling the system's introduction during caretaker provisions before the January election.

The opposition, however, says Education Minister Kate Jones should have requested regular updates about the malfunctioning system's progress during the subsequent six-month period.

The Education Department's acting deputy director-general of corporate services has voluntarily stood down as investigations continue, Ms Jones has revealed.

In a separate error, a further 27 reports of suspected abuse have not been forwarded to authorities, she says.

"I have directed the director-general of the department to broaden Deloitte's independent investigation to examine all issues relating to the online student protection reporting system since its introduction in September 2013," Ms Jones said in a statement on Thursday.

The latest revelations came after a manual check of all 3822 cases of suspected abuse.

The Queensland Police Service has scrambled to follow up each of the reports and officers are conducting welfare checks in the most serious of cases.

The revelations showed the bungle was far from fixed, opposition education spokesman Tim Mander said.

"Given the new figures she (Ms Jones) has released, it raises more questions than answers," he said.

"The minister needs to be upfront and tell Queenslanders exactly what's happening."

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