By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Greater Dandenong has a shortfall of nearly $8.8 million in uncollected fines as a result of State agency Fines Victoria’s IT debacle.
The fines mainly consist of parking infringements, as well as planning and building breaches and local law penalties for littering and animal control breaches.
They date back to 30 June 2019.
“We are still in the process of collecting this,” Greater Dandenong corporate services director Mick Jaensch said.
“We look forward to improvements to the system to ensure its reliability into the future.”
Fines Victoria has blamed software issues, which has led to a multi-million-dollar backlog of fine notices that haven’t been sent to the would-be recipients.
Other councils such as Hobsons Bay and Port Phillip are threatening legal action for the financial blackhole.
The State Government itself is facing a $328 million shortfall in uncollected fines, such as court-issued penalties, from 2018-19.
It had already ordered a review into Fines Victoria after a damning Victorian Ombudsman’s report in March.
A Department of Justice spokesperson told ABC News that reminder notices hadn’t been issued to Victorians “due to some complexity of merging data from the courts into the fines system”.
“The obligation remains on Victorian debtors to pay their fines,” the spokesperson said.
“The system is working and the debts don’t go away.
“People have a responsibility to pay their fines and they should.”
The State Government did not respond to Star Journal before deadline.
