These appeared last week. First this.
Australian national auditor to comb over myGov
Calls for public submissions.
The Australian National Audit Office has revealed it will undertake an in-depth audit into the implementation and benefits realised by the myGov service gateway.
MyGov has been progressively rolled out since early 2014, managed by the IT team at the Department of Human Services. It acts as an authentication layer providing single log-on access to a range of government transactions from tax returns to electronic health records.
It has been touted as a success by the Commonwealth, with 8.6 million registered users at last count and almost 200,000 logins every day, but its implementation has not been without controversy.
Soon after launch, an Australian security researcher uncovered cross-site scripting flaws in the portal that could enable a hacker to hijack myGov user accounts.
The portal has also encountered a series of usability obstacles.
Last month DHS spokesman Hank Jongen announced the agency had kicked off a concerted program to prioritise and address the most common customer complaints about myGov.
More here:
and this:
MyGov to feel the audit blowtorch
Date March 3, 2016 - 5:21PM
Noel Towell
Reporter for The Canberra Times
Frustrated users of the troubled myGov web portal now have the chance to contribute to an official review of the government web portal's performance by the Commonwealth's Audit Office.
The Australian National Audit Office wants stakeholders and members of the public to make submissions to its report which is due to be tabled in parliament in spring this year.
The giant Department of Human Services, which runs myGov, has had an unhappy recent history with ANAO audits after it was savaged in mid-2015 for its performance in answering its phones.
The Audit Office says it is conducting a "performance audit" of Human Services' performance in implementing myGov, and whether the intended benefits of the portal have been realised.
myGov was launched in 2013 and is used by several million Australians as a portal to access their Centrelink, Medicare, Child Support, Department of Veterans' Affairs, e-health, and DisabilityCare accounts.
The portal is a cornerstone of the Commonwealth's strategy of moving more and more transactions online, where they are cheap, and away from the traditional face-to-face or over-the-phone methods of service delivery.
But serious problems have emerged with the security and operability of the myGov, with users complaining of being locked out of their accounts, outages and other glitches.
There have also been serious concerns raised that the portal leaves users' information vulnerable to cyber-criminals.
Despite former Human Services Minister Stuart Robert lashing out at critics of the portal last month as "wrong" and "badly misinformed", the department has acknowledged some of the problems and initiated a program in January to identify and try to tackle the most serious issues.
More here:
As readers will know all Consumers need to go through the myGov portal to get at their mHR so having it work seamlessly - which it really doesn’t right now - is important. For example I don’t have a working mobile and the portal keeps demanding its number - sign of the times I guess!
I hope the audit will be followed up by looking at the mHR and fixing it up. No one else seems to know what to do….
David.
5 comments:
David, it is highly unlikely any Audit of the unholy mess that is eHealth (be it PCEHR, NEHTA, MHR) will make one jot of difference. You may wish otherwise but being realistic you should realise that while an Audit will highlight in no uncertain terms flagrant incompetence and massive wastage of public funds all it will really serve to do is give the perpetrators a convenient out and lots more breathing space to continue doing what they have already been doing.
In other words, after many months undertaking the Audit (say 12+) then another 6 months for the bureaucrats to respond, they will readily acknowledge there have been shortcomings, undertake that they will be addressed, set out on a path into a new never never and leave you and your colleagues to hold their breath in eager anticipation for another 2 or 3 years. All up 4+years and still going nowhere. Sorry to be there bearer of sad news but that is the reality of it all.
As previous commentators have said only when the doctors pull the plug backed up convincingly by their peak bodies, the AMA and RACGP, neither of which have ever demonstrated leadership capabilities in that regard, - only then will perhaps some progress be made; perhaps.
Re: 4:37 - How very true. While Audits are informative for all the downside is they end up prolonging the agony and perpetuating the status quo to no-ones benefit. Don't get sucked in to that cesspool.
I am not sure I agree. I like the truth to come out - even if it takes a while. WA, SA and Vic have all, at least, had some change after proper audits as I recall - not to say that more work is not needed (sigh)!
David.
Oh yes, no argument with that David - the truth must come out and only an audit will do that BUT the dilemma here is that the RACGP and AMA first need to demonstrate true and effective leadership in bringing this eHealth fiasco to an end.
Otherwise, if an Audit happens before they speak out they will hide behind the apron of obfuscation and use the audit as an excuse to do and say nothing for another few years.
My explanation re the AMA and the RACGP has three words....."Follow the money" The whole of the health sector are in each others pockets - hence the inaction...
David,
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