‘Case study in funny money’: Report on failed Eloque is close

afr.com:

The Victorian auditor-general will deliver its findings about VicTrack’s fibre-optic sensors venture, described by the Liberal Party as “a case study in funny money”, in the next three months after missing its June deadline.

The auditor-general has examined whether the Eloque venture – set up in 2021 to develop sensors to remotely monitor bridges – was “transparent, evidence-based and free from bias”.

Eloque, which went into liquidation a year ago, collapsed just 16 months after it was established and spent $16 million of taxpayers’ funds.

Eloque was set up in 2021 to remotely monitor bridges but contracts were not put out to open tender. Justin McManus

The auditor-general was due to finish its investigation by the end of June. A spokeswoman said the audit was in its final phase and a report would be delivered to state parliament between October and December.

“We identified the original timeframe of 2022-23 to complete our work,” she said. “We now plan to table this audit in the second quarter of 2023-24.”

Neither the Victorian government nor Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Centre, which led the joint venture and had a 62.5 per cent stake, have fully explained the reasons for Eloque’s collapse.

In February last year, Xerox chief executive John Visentin said Eloque was “seeing success with the installs in Australia and is working with multiple state departments of transportation in the US to start deploying pilots in 2022, while continuing talks in select European countries”.

But on November 30, Eloque went into liquidation with the value of some 14 million shareswritten off.

Victorian Liberal treasury spokesman David Davis alleged the project was “a case study in funny money, crooked processes and secrecy”.

The initial