old articles on tcard litigation, page-2

Note how many " There was no requirement under the
contract that..." in the government' defence!!! what a government we have here in NSW!!!


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THE State Government never formally ordered its
transport agencies, RailCorp and the State Transit Authority, to co-operate with the development of
Tcard for Sydney's weary commuters.
In court documents obtained by the Herald, the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation says the
agencies were never required in the Tcard contract to provide "any level, of engagement, support
and co-operation" for the shift to the integrated ticketing system.
The revelation comes after ERG Limited, which had its $367 million, 10-year agreement terminated
in January, lodged a $200 million counter-suit against the NSW Government.
The legal dispute began in April when the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation launched a $90
million suit against ERG to recoup what it spent on the project.
But ERG says RailCorp and State Transit contributed to the project delays that eventually killed
Tcard.
In court papers, it says a RailCorp tester obstructed one trial of the equipment by holding his
thumb over an electronic sensor then reporting that the machine had failed to cope with jammed
tickets.
The Government denies this specific allegation. However, lawyers for the corporation say they were
never contractually required to ensure both State Transit and RailCorp co-operated with the
project.
"There was no requirement pursuant to the contract for there to be committed, or any level, of
engagement, support and co-operation by the operators," their cross-claim response reads.
Instead, the Government says ERG "agreed to bear the risk of any delay in performance resulting
from a lack of engagement, support and co-operation by the operators".
ERG has claimed that delays were also the result of being asked to perform additional work that
was not a feature of the original contract, like the 2004 decision to give Tcards to school students.
But the corporation says ERG waived any claim it may have had over these delays when it signed
an "amending agreement", including "any claim for an extension of time".
ERG alleges in its log of claims that RailCorp had drastically slowed the introduction of the project
by forcing ERG to not only replicate the existing "legacy" technology, but also to replicate the
glitches in that technology.
It says that when changes were made to such software its staff were not informed.
Page 1 of 2 Lack of will killed Tcard, papers show - National - smh.com.au
6/11/2008 http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/lack-of-will-killed-tcard-papers-show/2008/06/10/1...
The Government agrees that ERG was required to ensure its software was compatible with
RailCorp's EFTPOS and general ledger systems.
But its lawyers say "there was no requirement under the contract that RailCorp inform [ERG] of the
detail of upgrades to [that] software".
And while the Public Transport Ticketing Corporation says RailCorp did occasionally give ERG the
results of the testing it conducted on its legacy systems, there was no contractual obligation to give
ERG those results "in a timely manner".
ERG says the fact that RailCorp failed to provide this information quickly "caused or contributed to
delays and difficulties on the project".
Similarly, the Government admits ERG had to build software that communicated between Tcard
software and State Transit's own program that gathered data on daily bus services.
But in its court statement, the ticketing corporation says: "There was no requirement under the
contract that STA provide [ERG] with accurate [STA software] data in a timely manner."
The Government reveals in the statement that it stopped the installation of Tcard equipment on
buses for a month in September 2006 because "defects in the integrated ticket system had
resulted in inaccurate recording of takings [and] there was poor workmanship by [ERG] in the
installation of the equipment".