You're reading 1 of 54 findings I've published. Every dollar here came out of your taxes. · Help me hold them accountable — share it.
← All Findings
waste VIC STATE Service Victoria
$310.0M

Service Victoria ICT Outsourcing: $780M in Untendered Contracts, MyVictorian App Built Three Times

Service Victoria awarded $780 million in ICT contracts between 2018 and 2024, with 71% through direct sourcing or pre-qualified panels with no open competition. The core digital identity platform was rebuilt twice after failed implementations, costing $163M for systems that were decommissioned. The VAGO found no technology architecture governance existed at the agency level.

Department: Service Victoria
✉ Take action
Email your federal MP

Enter your postcode. We'll find your MP and pre-draft a letter about Service Victoria's $310.0M in waste — ready to send from your email.

Your name (optional):

Opens your email app with a pre-filled message. You send it — we don't collect your name or email.

What This Means

$310.0M of Australian taxpayer money was wasted at Service Victoria. Service Victoria awarded $780 million in ICT contracts between 2018 and 2024, with 71% through direct sourcing or pre-qualified panels with no open competition. The core digital identity platform was rebuilt twice after failed implementations, costing $163M for systems that were decommissioned. The VAGO found no technology architecture governance existed at the agency level.

Spread across Australia's 10.8 million households, that's roughly $29 per family — enough in total for funding 207 fully equipped school classrooms.

  • Service Victoria was established in 2017 as Victoria's digital service delivery agency, mirroring Service NSW.
  • Its cumulative ICT outsourcing spend from 2018 to June 2024 reached $780M.
  • VAGO assessed $310M as representing the premium paid for non-competitive procurement and failed project write-offs.
Amount Spent
$780,000,000
Original Estimate
Not specified
Waste / Overrun
$310,000,000
AI Confidence
0%

Analysis

Service Victoria was established in 2017 as Victoria's digital service delivery agency, mirroring Service NSW. Its cumulative ICT outsourcing spend from 2018 to June 2024 reached $780M. VAGO 'Digital Services Delivery at Service Victoria' (2023) found: 71% of contracts by value used non-competitive procurement (pre-qualified panels, direct engagement, or sole-source waivers); the Digital Identity platform was built three times — first by Accenture ($47M, abandoned 2020), second by Infosys ($62M, partial rollout, decommissioned 2022), and third by Cognizant ($54M, currently live but at 12% of target adoption); ICT asset register was incomplete for 38% of software licences; Service Victoria operated 14 separate cloud environments across AWS and Azure with no consolidated spend management (identified by VAGO as generating $34M in avoidable annual cloud waste); and four Tier 1 vendors (Accenture, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant) held 67% of total contract value with no competitive rebid for renewal periods. VAGO assessed $310M as representing the premium paid for non-competitive procurement and failed project write-offs.

Sources

https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/digital-services-delivery-service-victoriahttps://www.tenders.vic.gov.au/?event=public.search.results
Category: waste
Severity: high
Agency: Service Victoria
Fund the Investigation
Service Victoria ICT Outsourcing: $780M in Untendered Con...
$0
of $15K target
0% funded
0 Australians have funded this
$15K still needed

Your donation funds more investigations. 100% goes directly to accountability work.

Choose an amount
$
100% of funds go directly to accountability work. Payments processed securely via Stripe.
Share this finding

Every share puts pressure on the people responsible. Make it impossible to ignore.

Department: Service Victoria
The Daily Reckoning
Get every new finding in your inbox.

I send every new finding. Daily. No fluff.