Vic "Tcard" AU$1 billion over budget, 15 months late - News - Business

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Vic "Tcard" AU$1 billion over budget, 15 months late

By AAP NewsWire
February 04, 2008
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Vic-Tcard-AU-1-billion-over-budget-15-months-late/0,139023166,339285606,00.htm

The introduction of a new public transport smartcard for Melbourne will cost more than AU$1 billion, and is running 15 months behind schedule according to a report, but the Victorian government will persist with the project.

A report by the Office of the Auditor General said the Myki smartcard system will cost twice as much as Victorian taxpayers were told, News Limited newspapers said today.

The announcement comes only a week after the NSW state government scrapped its plan for a similar public transport smartcard -- the TCard -- after cost blowouts and continual delays.

The government said the system would cost AU$494 million but documents not included in the final draft of the report presented to parliament last year by Auditor General Des Pearson showed the Transport Ticketing Authority would need AU$1.13 billion.

This included a AU$189 million contingency fund created because the US-based contractor told the government it needed more money to complete the project.

Cost-cutting has since shaved the total cost back to AU$1 billion, News Ltd said.

Myki is 15 months behind schedule and will not be operating until June.

Liberal MPs are likely to demand the tabling of the draft documents before parliament's public accounts and estimates committee, which meets today, but Pearson said the drafts may not be reliable.

"There are avenues for review in my organisation and across the public service, and none of those have been used," he said.

Pearson said there was "probably a logical explanation" for why details were omitted from the final report but he was legally prevented from discussing them.

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