Computerworld first reported the IT support problems at Defence in August when Defence employees pointed the finger at Kaz for delivering "abysmal" computer support.

In contrast to Monaghan's admission during the committee hearing last month, a Defence spokesperson had told Computerworld in August "performance has already improved and Defence expects to return to 'business as usual' for service standards by September."

A global upgrade to Windows XP has always been cited by Defence as the cause of the support problems, and not Kaz's performance.

The backlog is now "in the order of" 5000 but at the time of the hearing Monaghan was still waiting for the end-of-month figures.

Monaghan said Defence considers "less than 10 jobs outstanding per hundred customers" is considered to be an acceptable level of backlog, but with some 80,000 accounts, he does not believe between 5000 and 6000 requests is acceptable.