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Not to be confused with Korean Asset Management Company.

Kamco
Company typePrivate (part of NTT Data Group)
IndustryElectronic ticketing
Founded2003
HeadquartersMelbourne, Australia
Key people
CEO Greg Purdy
Productsmyki
Number of employees
120+ in Victoria, India and the US
ParentKeane
Websitewww.kamco.com.au

Kamco (Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium Pty Ltd) is the company formed in 2003 to tender for a new public transport ticketing system in Victoria, Australia. It was contracted to provide the myki ticketing system in 2005. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American company Keane Inc., and when the myki contract was awarded it described itself as "an alliance" of Keane Australia, Ascom, ERG, and Giesecke & Devrient Australasia (G&D),[1] with Keane Australia providing "a single point of accountability" for Victoria's Transport Ticketing Authority.[2] ERG was the creator of Metcard. Keane Australia changed its name in October 2013 to NTT Data Victorian Ticketing System Pty Ltd.[3]

Controversy in Victoria

Procurement Process

In April 2008, Vivian Miners, chief executive of the Transport Ticketing Authority, quit his $545,000-a-year job. After a report into the tendering process by Des Pearson, Victoria's Attorney General Rob Hulls found the tendering for the ticket system had been conducted improperly.[4] Mr Miners owned about $150,000 of shares in Headstrong, which was part of the Kamco consortium at the time it won the tender. Mr Miners' partner and former wife both worked for Headstrong and ERG, the Perth-based transport ticket company part of Keane.[5] An early alleged draft of the report, leaked to the media in 2008, detailed a series of alleged conflicts of interest, probity issues, backdating of reports and favouring of the eventual winning bidder Kamco, a subsidiary of the American IT firm Keane.[6]

The final report observed that "Keane had no corporate experience in developing, implementing and operating a ticketing system" and "barely demonstrated adequate capacity."[7] The project has since gone over both time and budget limits.[8][9]

Cash Injection required

The Australian reported on 24 December 2007 that Kamco had requested a cash injection and wanted to change the contract to receive an accelerated payments schedule.[10] To date Kamco has received $150m of the approx $750m spent.

Dispute with ERG

Kamco sub-contracted installation and repair of myki equipment to ERG in an A$106 million contract which Kamco repudiated in June 2009. ERG separately sued Kamco, holding myki equipment hostage until "unpaid bills worth $1.8 million were settled",[11] upon which Kamco launched a counter-claim in the Victorian Supreme Court.[12]

January 2010 roll-out

By early 2010, the state's political opponents were presenting figures alleging that "Melbourne has by far the most costly smartcard system in the world". The Labor Party's Public Transport minister Lynne Kosky attributed issues with the January 2010 roll-out to errors by Kamco, including "very silly mistakes" and "unacceptable" problems including a recall of 30,500 cards.[13] Major operation problems included incorrect fare charging, cards that couldn't be activated and cards that wouldn't open entrance or exit gates.[14] Also in 2010, Keane, Inc. was taken over by Japanese company NTT DATA Corporation, a subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone.

Review into myki 2010/2011

After the change of Government in the 2010 Victorian Election the incoming Liberal/National Coalition announced a "warts and all" review of myki by Deloitte.[15] This report has yet to be released as of February 2011. Other companies have claimed they can provide alternative technical solutions at lower cost, but the Public Transport minister Terry Mulder said that it was not appropriate to consider these proposals until the Department of Treasury and Finance had costed the options in Deloitte's report. It could cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars to end its contract with Kamco early.[16]

References

  1. ^ Kamco (12 July 2005). "Kamco Media Release" (PDF). Department of Infrastructure. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium - Profile v2.0" (PDF). Kamco. May 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2011. Retrieved 10 July 2014. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ ASIC Company Search
  4. ^ Ticket chief Stopped in tracks, The Age, 2 April 2008 http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ticket-chief-stopped-in-tracks/2008/04/01/1206850910956.html?page=2
  5. ^ Transport shares questioned, Herald Sun, 15/2/2011 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/transport-shares-questioned/story-e6frf7kx-1111115147938
  6. ^ Ticket chief stopped in tracks, The Age 2 April 2008 http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/ticket-chief-stopped-in-tracks/2008/04/01/1206850910956.html?page=2
  7. ^ "Locked into myki, public is owed answers". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 February 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  8. ^ Myki running late again, The Age, 24/11/2008 http://www.theage.com.au/national/myki-running-late-again-20081124-6g59.html
  9. ^ Myki a $550m blowout, The Age, 17 July 2008 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/myki-a-550m-blowout/story-e6frf7kx-1111116934835
  10. ^ Victoria's $500m Myki card blow-out, The Australian, 24/12/2007, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/victorias-500m-myki-card-blow-out/story-e6frgan6-1111115185812
  11. ^ Ben Grubb (22 February 2010). "ERG sues myki vendor for $30m". ZDNet.com.au. Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  12. ^ Clay Lucas (22 February 2010). "Company behind myki sued for $30m". The Age.
  13. ^ Ashley Gardiner (12 January 2010). "Lynne Kosky slams myki company Kamco for series of bungles in Melbourne launch". Herald Sun.
  14. ^ Robert Charette (8 January 2010). "Australia's A$1.3 billion Myki Ticketing System Introduction Marred By Multiple Missteps". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
  15. ^ Richard Willingham (29 December 2010). "'Warts-and-all' review of myki". The Age. Retrieved 25 March 2011.
  16. ^ Alan Kohler (22 February 2011). "Metcard operator offers Myki 'solution'". Business Spectator. Retrieved 18 March 2011.
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