By Laura Michell
Thousands of parking fines issued by Hume council could potentially be refunded after the Victorian Ombudsman found the council may have acted illegally by outsourcing its fines review process.
In a report on the outsourcing of parking fine internal reviews, which was tabled in state Parliament last Wednesday, Ombudsman Deborah Glass said Hume council had advised her office in February that it had outsourced its fine reviews between 2009 and 2020.
The report was a follow-up to Ms Glass’ initial report into the outsourcing of reviews at Glen Eira, Port Phillip and Stonnington councils between 2006 and 2016, which was tabled last February.
At the time, Ms Glass found that the practice of outsourcing the review process to external contractors “appeared to have been contrary to the law”.
The latest report revealed that Hume council handled 25,666 fine reviews between July 2006 and December 2016, 18,775 of which were rejected.
The report said it is not known how many fines had been affected by the outsourcing process.
“The council said it used a private contractor to assist parking services and internal review between 2009 and 2020,” the report stated.
“It said it strengthened its review process from December 20, 2016, after legal doubts began to emerge about the use of contractors.”
The report said an external auditor reviewed the council’s historical use of the contractor, at the council’s request, sampling 30 internal reviews conducted between 2006 and 2016.
“It found the contractor had been assessing the internal review applications and sending recommendations to council officers for decision. There were problems with just over half of the sampled reviews: either there was no evidence that a council officer approved the recommendation, or council officers appeared to have accepted the recommendation ‘without evidence of practical review’.
“In other words, the council had sometimes engaged in the same outsourcing and rubber-stamping practices as the three councils involved in the Ombudsman’s [initial] investigation.”
Ms Glass said Hume council had advised that it would set up an infringement refund scheme.
In a statement, Hume council said the refund scheme was for all motorists who unsuccessfully appealed an infringement between 2006 and 2016.
The scheme is currently being developed and is expected to begin in July.
Hume City Council acknowledges it has used contractors in the past to support its infringement review process and believed that it had acted in accordance with the law,” the statement said.
Ms Glass’ report also found that Monash, Kingston, Geelong, Mildura, Bass Coast and Frankston councils, as well as Parks Victoria and Monash University, had outsourced fine reviews.
