DRIVE A2B July 2018

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OMBUDSMAN REVIEW Fairness Fund POORLY EXECUTED Earlier this year the Victorian Ombudsman was asked to investigate the taxi and hire car industry ‘Fairness Fund’. They received 64 complaints about the Fairness Fund, about delays, letters without information, lack of communication, apparently incomprehensible decisionmaking leading to dire personal circumstances, and one overwhelming complaint: that the Fund was not fair. money in situations when there is no legal obligation to do so, when it is believed to be morally right,” says Ms Deborah Glass, Ombudsman. But the discretionary nature of such schemes makes it all the more important that they operate in a timely, flexible manner, providing clear advice and information to applicants. This did not happen. Much of this was the result of initial miscalculation. Inevitably, many complaints were also concerned about the perceived unfairness of the taxi industry reforms, as a result of which many licence holders lost a great deal of money. The Ombudsman couldn’t rule on the deregulation of the taxi industry as this is a matter for government, but the Ombudsman most certainly looked at the administration of the Fairness Fund. “The Fairness Fund was set up to provide ex gratia assistance for licence holders experiencing significant financial hardship. It is the nature of ex gratia payments that they are not compensation – they are an ‘act of grace’ – providing sums of The Fund initially expected to receive 150 applications; it ultimately received 1,247, which in itself is still less than a third of the amount who could have applied to the Fairness Fund. Ms Glass concludes in her report that ”This clearly had an impact on timelines, as did the fact that many applicants did not provide the comprehensive financial information requested, and the high potential for fraud”. The report states, “But while the Fund was overwhelmed with applications and needed to ensure that public money would not be paid out inappropriately, hundreds of people were given the bureaucratic run-around. The call centre operated on such a Deborah Glass Victorian Ombudsman limited script it is difficult to see why it was even set up. Letters were pro forma templates with little information. Confusion persisted about eligibility criteria.” The report also states, “We did not conclude that the Fund itself was flawed, although much better planning and communication, including managing expectations, would have avoided many of the complaints. We did not examine the fairness of the decisions on payment. These were made following review by external auditors according to detailed criteria that could not be published to mitigate against 24 DRIVE A2B magazine · July 2018
fraudulent claims, and it was reasonable for the Fund to ensure it had full and honest financial information before making a decision on payment.” Ms Glass continued to say, “It should have anticipated at least some of the difficulties it encountered. Its poor communication, compounded by delay, was unreasonable and would have exacerbated the distress already felt by people who believed the government had taken away their livelihood or life savings.” It is the opinion of the Ombudsman that, “Based on the evidence obtained in the investigation, the department [for Transport] has acted in a manner that is unreasonable, pursuant to section 23(1)(b) of the Ombudsman Act, by: • failing to establish and resource the scheme sufficiently to meet the reasonable likelihood of demand; • failing to transparently communicate with licence holders about their application to the fund, including reasons for delay. “In these circumstances, despite the worthy motive behind its establishment, calling it a Fairness Fund was asking for trouble,” said Ms Glass. “The Fund itself has completed its work but there are important lessons to be learned for the handling of such schemes in future. Good intentions should not be undone – as they were in this case – by poor execution,” she concluded. DRIVE A2B magazine · July 2018 25
Page 1 and 2: DRIVE Voice of the Victorian Point-
Page 3 and 4: CONTENTS WHAT’S INSIDE 6 Times th
Page 5 and 6: 1 July 2018, there are many questio
Page 7 and 8: TAXI DRIVERS WANTED CALL 13 22 22 Z
Page 9 and 10: fitted with a safety camera while e
Page 11 and 12: COMMERCIAL PASSENGER WANT A VOICE W
Page 13 and 14: From 1 July 2018 a $1 trip levy app
Page 15 and 16: COMMENCEMENT OF REGULATIONS The com
Page 17 and 18: New taxi tolls From 1 July 2018 the
Page 19 and 20: An increase could make passengers w
Page 21 and 22: INDUSTRY STATISTICS The statistical
Page 23: EXCLUSIVE CPVAA MEMBER OFFER EXPERI
Page 27 and 28: HAVE YOUR SAY Send your thoughts to
Page 29 and 30: INFRASTRUCTURE Want to participate
Page 31 and 32: THINK LONG You should also remember
Page 33 and 34: ACCIDENT COVER FOR THE VICTORIAN CO
Page 35 and 36: WHAT WE HEAR ! The $1 trip levy is
Page 37 and 38: SOUTH AUSTRALIA A driverless public
Page 39 and 40: What’s On in Melbourne Skating at
Page 41 and 42: JAPAN Toyota Motor Corp. is conside
Page 43 and 44: Police are seeking to identify thes

DRIVE A2B July 2018

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