Findings of myGov audit imminent

The Australian National Audit Office is gearing up to release the findings of its year-long investigation into the implementation and performance of the Commonwealth’s online service portal myGov.

Operated by the Department of Human Services under the guidance of the Digital Transformation Agency, myGov boasts in excess of 10 million users - largely thanks to being the sole authentication mechanism for online tax returns - but has also attracted the umbrage of many users.

It has set upon a concerted campaign to fix its usability, but only time will tell if it’s enough to redeem its reputation.

The ANAO announced it would launch a formal probe into the website in March last year, focusing on the effectiveness of its implementation as well as the "delivery of intended benefits".

It flagged that the audit would also look at the role of the Australian Taxation Office and the DTA in the process of assessing whether or not the authentication platform could have been better designed.

The audit appears to have proved bigger than the performance watchdog anticipated, with its scheduled release date pushed back to February 2017 from an original due date of spring last year.

The report will land at a sensitive time for DHS and Human Services Minister Alan Tudge, as they battle against a solid month of criticism of its automated debt detection system.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman has already launched his own investigation into a data matching process that is issuing thousands of debt notices based on what critics say is a hazy and inaccurate system.

Frontline Human Services staff have also voiced their concern about the system, via the CPSU public sector union.