It has been quite the week in Spring St.
While the week has been dominated by the hearings at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), it has also been dominated by what can only be described as a potential Triple Own-Goal. This is something the likes of which reflect quite poorly on a government, or at least it would if we had a competent media and a voting public who, instead of attacking the messenger (media), actually looked at the message for once in their lives.
Own Goal 1: The Tender The Andrews Government has recently conducted and concluded a tender process into who would take over the Myki Ticket System here in Victoria. Essentially this system involves public transport users touching on and off every time they use Public Transport. The biggest criticism of the Myki System is that it doesn't allow us to touch on or off with debit cards, smart watches or mobile phones. Presumably, the next company to take over was going to be responsible for introducing this.
That presumption has now been put into question following a letter that was addressed to Daniel Andrews from one of the losing consortiums (Cubic) which raised very specific concerns.
Concern 1: That the government held extra talks after Cubic made their final submission with those who turned out to be the winning consortium (Conduent) This is a very difficult one to prove or to even remotely address. The only way this could even get off the ground as a complaint is if we had access to the diaries of those who were involved in those "alleged" meetings. Did these meetings actually happen? Diaries would answer that but that would involve transparency and that isn't allowed in Victoria. If such a meeting occurred and Conduent were given extra information that could beef up their submission then that would absolutely be improper conduct. Verdict: This is very hard to substantiate but if proof came out of something like this, a resignation or 3 would have to follow!
Concern 2: The winning bidder has never delivered the sort of technology that would be needed to modernise Myki so we can use debit cards and mobile phones to tap on and off.
This actually beggars belief in the extreme. Essentially, we've gone for a company that hasn't been able to produce the necessary technology ahead of someone that has proven technology that works. If this isn't the perfect summary of the Andrews government, then quite frankly, I don't know what is.
Two weeks ago there was an article from the ABC 'US-based firm Conduent put under spotlight...' which talks about the concerns that Cubic outlined in their letter. Of particular interest to me was this section of the article which contains a brief comment from Public Transport Minister Ben Carroll and then the actual reality
"We are taking a system that has been tested in Paris, in Dubai, in Montreal, in New Jersey and bringing it to Melbourne,'' he told reporters last week.
But the opposition and industry insiders have questioned the accuracy of the minister's statement.
In Paris, commuters still need to have a physical ticket, similar to a myki. Android users can use their phones but other phone users cannot yet access open payments. Sources say work to make open payments more widespread continues. In Dubai, Conduent only runs a bus service which requires a physical ticket, with contract negotiations ongoing about open payments. And in Montreal, physical tickets are still required.
You have got to be joking. Based on that, the Minister has blatantly lied to Victorians. Based on that, how the hell have Conduent won the bid? If anyone was so inclined, maybe an investigation would be worthwhile to see if there are any connections between the Andrews government and Conduent because I cannot see how they won off this alone.
Verdict: The Public Transport Minister has flat-out lied and based on this ABC Article, Conduent should never have won the bid
Concern 3: Conduent's Bid was $100m more than Cubic's Bid! Without seeing the bids, it is very hard to verify this but let's assume this is true. This is the latest of hypocrisies to emanate from Spring St.
We were told a matter of 2 weeks ago that we had a major debt emergency and that we would all have to do our bit to pay back the Covid Debt. That the debt came about partially from government mismanagement was something that was conveniently ignored by the likes of Tim Pallas (Treasurer), Daniel Andrews (Premier) and Victorian Media.
We were all told that we were going to be gouged whether directly or indirectly and here we have a government department recommending that a winning tender that costs $100m more and comes from a company with dubious results be accepted.
What in the actual hell? Do we have a debt crisis or not? Something about this stinks to high heaven but yet again, we don't have the media doing their job asking about this point.
Verdict: The politest verdict I could give here is a facepalm...the rest of the verdict is not safe for consumption.
The most amazing part of all this was Andrews' response when asked about the letter on Tuesday. To paraphrase his response "I haven't seen or read it." It was addressed to him for god's sake and yes, I know he has people read letters but you would think that if there was a letter addressed to the Premier that made specific allegations of this nature, you would not only READ THE DAMN LETTER but ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Again, that isn't something we seem to do in Victoria.
Where the hell was the media follow-up question? Why haven't you read a letter that was addressed to you which made specific claims of improper conduct in a tender process? Again, this is a media failure which is also a common theme here in Victoria. He followed up with the usual crap of "We had people involved who monitored the process to make sure that nothing improper occurred." Does anyone honestly believe that? Maybe they did but let's be honest, this government cannot be trusted to run anything with integrity and that certainly includes a tender process. The person monitoring was probably an Andrews appointee who would turn a blind eye and allow the preferred outcome to occur with enough oversight to give the appearance of a proper tender process.
In a genuine government that valued accountability, transparency and integrity, these claims would be investigated but we don't have such a government here in Victoria so this will naturally pass with a brief outrage but that's it. It's not good enough but unfortunately, it's entirely predictable.
This tender is a massive own goal but it's not the only one this week.
Later today will be Part 2 which will focus on transcripts and "that person"
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