Health IT vendor Orion Health has asked New Zealand’s Auditor-General to investigate the Ministry of Health’s procurement of the new National Immunisation Solution (NIS), saying the ministry had ignored normal processes and had used incorrect information in its business case.

In a letter to Auditor-General John Ryan, Orion Health CEO Ian McCrae said the reported $38 million price tag for the new system, which is being developed by the ministry using Salesforce and AWS technology, was a “scandalous figure” and that an upgrade to the existing National Immunisation Register (NIR), which Orion provides, was all that was needed.