Shared services a failure, say SA Libs

A move to bring some South Australian government services together to cut costs has failed, the Liberal opposition says.

Opposition finance spokesman Rob Lucas said treasury officials had told parliament's budget and finance committee that the cost of implementing the scheme had blown out from an estimated $60 million to $128 million.

Mr Lucas said the project, which was supposed to save the government $60 million a year, would also not realise such savings.

"Shared services initiatives in other states like Queensland have already been shelved due to serious problems," Mr Lucas said in a statement on Monday.

"It is now time for Labor to admit this is a disaster and review whether or not it should be proceeded with under the current guidelines.

"At the very least there needs to be significant change to the proposal including tighter controls to prevent these massive blowouts."

Under the shared services plan, the government is bringing some back office services provided by various government departments and agencies, including payrolls, under one unit.