An IBM executive has been accused of "spamming" a systems tester trying to blow whistle on faults in payroll program An IBM executive has been accused of "spamming" a systems tester trying to blow the whistle on the hundreds of faults in the doomed health payroll program. Bill Doak has denied the allegations put yesterday by Brett Cowan, who found IBM's health payroll system unfit for service well before the March 2010 "go-live" decision. Mr Cowan said during his 10-month analysis he would often put out nightly status report to 70 or 80 people, advising of numerous problems. "There were numerous occasions where I'd come back in the morning where Mr Doak had spammed the entire distribution," Mr Cowan told the Queensland Health Payroll Inquiry yesterday. Mr Doak's comments would allegedly include comments such as: "These numbers are crazy, this is ridiculous, you shouldn't be doing this." Inquiry head Richard Chesterman, QC, intervened in this morning's cross examination to ask if Mr Doak had attacked Mr Cowan's status reports. "Well, did you spam?" asked Mr Chesterman. Mr Doak said he did not spam, but merely sent out "maybe half a dozen" emails to Mr Cowan asking for more information. The $5 million inquiry is examining all facets of a massive outsourcing contract won by IBM in 2007 and which included the health payroll - flagged as a $6 million component of the deal. After under-paying and over-paying thousands of Queensland Health employees since implementation in 2010, the collapsed payroll system continues to be a drain on state finances and is predicted to cost the tax payer $1.2 billion. Mr Doak was IBM's program director for the outsourcing project, a high management role responsible for for a team of 200 to 300 IBM employees, IBM contractors and Queensland public servants. The most senior IBM executive to appear at the inquiry, Mr Doak has defended IBM's role in bedding down the payroll system. He told the inquiry in a written report IBM was complimented on many occasions for the quality of the work it presented to the Queensland Government. "That is not to say there were never any issues with the work provided by IBM," he said. However, where any quality issue was brought to my attention I ensured it was addressed as a priority. I considered that the IBM team performed to a high standard. Mr Doak denied suggestions from Counsel Assisting Peter Callaghan, SC, that IBM was struggling to get the payroll system ready for the go live date, eventually approved in March 2010. He told the inquiry IBM was hampered by requests for changes constantly being received from the Queensland Government. He denied IBM could never have hoped to go live in September 2009. "Not without all the change requests that were out there," he said. Without the change requests - absolutely. Mr Doak said IBM would have had no problem with the system if it was allowed to build the system as defined by the original deal.