A myGov smartphone app is “on track” to launch at some point this year after private beta testing began last December.
It’s been nearly three years since the federal government flagged a need for a single government app to provide access to myGov services, and nearly six months since Deloitte’s $5.5 million contract to develop such an app came to an end.
In October last year Services Australia deputy chief executive of transformation projects Charles McHardie said in a speech that the “first iteration” of the myGov app was expected to be launched in December.
But there has been no updates on the app since this speech, and this first iteration has not been seen.
According to a Services Australia spokesperson, the app went into private beta testing in December, and will be launched later this year as planned.
“Work on the new myGov app is on track and is expected to be delivered later this year, following thorough user testing,” the Services Australia spokesperson told InnovationAus.com.
“We began private beta testing the app in December last year and have continued to improve the app in line with the ongoing feedback provided.”
An “enhanced” version of the myGov platform is also in the “final stage of beta testing”, and it is unclear when it will be fully launched. The smartphone app is understood to provide access to this new version of myGov.
Employment Minister Stuart Robert also flagged the imminent launch of the app in a speech in December last year.
“We have listened closely to our customers to incrementally design and deliver a modern flexible and personalised platform. I look forward to it rolling out more widely, including as an app, next year,” Mr Robert said.
The app is expected to have a “wallet function” to store credentials including vaccine certifications.
Services Australia awarded consulting multinational Deloitte a $5.4 million contract running from mid-June to 24 December last year to develop the myGov app.
Deloitte is also closely involved with the “enhanced” version of myGov, and has been paid more than $41 million for this work over the last two years.
Two and a half years ago Mr Robert, who was Government Services Minister at the time, pitched the concept of a single government app.
“If you go to your Telstra app you can login biometrically, move to their CRM system and see all of the services that you have with Telstra and you can do everything from one place. Citizens are saying where is the one app for government?” Mr Robert told the Australian Financial Review in September 2019.
“We just need to provide services better…my department alone has six different apps.”
Labor earlier this month promised to launch an audit of the myGov platform if it wins the looming federal election, saying it is currently “not up to scratch”.
A key architect of myGov in its early days, Glenn Archer, also told InnovationAus this month that he “despairs” at the lack of progress on the platform, and that outsourcing key elements of its development has been a “huge mistake”.
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