myki micropayments a fare old muddle

Ian Rogers
The myki micropayments platform used to pay public transport fares in Victoria "has not satisfactorily achieved any of its original business case objectives", the Victorian Auditor-General found in a report released yesterday.

"None of the agencies responsible for myki have assessed whether it has achieved any of its expected outcomes and benefits, including providing value for money," John Doyle, the Auditor-General wrote in a report to parliament.

"I found that myki experienced significant delays and related cost increases that have compromised achievement of its original business case objectives and benefits."

The time taken to develop and implement myki more than quadrupled from the initial expectation of two years, to in excess of nine years, Doyle found.

"Consequently, the state has incurred significant, additional unanticipated costs with myki's budget increasing by around A$550 million, or 55 per cent."

Doyle said there was "poor initial planning resulted in myki's original scope and contract being vaguely specified and overly ambitious. This produced significant delivery risks that were poorly managed because of shortcomings in the state's initial governance and oversight of the project."

The Auditor-General omitted to identify the operator of myki, which is NTT DATA Victorian Ticketing System (formerly Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium).

The operational performance of myki "has also attracted significant complaints and criticism from users," the Auditor-General said.

"In particular, overcharging has been, by far, the single most common complaint from users about myki since its rollout."

The most recent financial statements for NTT suggest the contractor sees things differently, with a declaration that "performances are services [are] consistent and stable."

Margins for the operator are low, however, with a net profit of A$1.3 million on revenue of $103 million in 2014.

Public Transport Victoria will retender the contract for myki's continued operation, which expires in 2016.