00:02Victorians have been waiting years to be able to tap them with their phones, rather than
00:06their Mikeys, to catch public transport, and now they count on four select lines as part
00:10of a trial.
00:11This Mikey modernisation is costing it $2 billion, but the state's Auditor-General
00:16says it's unclear from his investigations of whether this is value for money.
00:21Andrew Greaves' latest report also says that a $136 million 18-month delay to ticketless
00:27travel could have been avoided had the Transport Department dealt with technical issues before
00:32signing a contract.
00:33It also accepted an unrealistic timeline put forward by Operator Conduant.
00:37Concession card holders make up a third of all travellers, and the plan is for them to
00:42get tap and go sometime next year, but this is a complex process, and the report warns
00:47of serious risks which have now materialised.
00:50The concession plan has been paused, and no restart date has been given, so for now it's
00:55just full fares.
00:57This is another billion dollars that the Government has spent, where we're not sure what the
01:01outcome is, or will be, it's not on time, it's not on budget, and it's not going to
01:06be.
01:06There are also concerns about Conduant's track record when it was first appointed.
01:11The auditor found the tender was effective, however he raised serious concerns the Department
01:15failed to follow its own guidelines by not appointing a probity auditor.
01:20The Government said it was getting on with delivering a new ticketing system which was complex, and his
01:24international experience showed major upgrades can take around four years.
01:28The full rollout of tap and go won't be complete until 2028, and that's only if the Government
01:33can manage this very complicated project.
01:35The auditor's report suggests that that may not be the case.
01:38theyITH
01:39are
01:39the
01:39the
01:39the
01:39the
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