It looks like its lights out for ECV

Vic may drop its e-conveyancing system

Victoria's $30 million electronic conveyancing system is likely to be shelved following yesterday's agreement by all states and territories to push ahead with a national system for transferring land online.

The Victorian system has been operating for seven months but has so far only attracted one transaction due to a boycott by major banks. It joins other major projects that the state government has failed to keep on track and under budget, creating cost blow-outs of more than $1 billion.

At yesterday's meeting of state premiers in Sydney, the Council of Australian Governments' business regulation and competition working group seized oversight of the national e-conveyancing program. That program has been in train since 2005 but has languished for the past 18 months because of a stand-off between Victoria and other states.

Victoria has its own electronic conveyancing system, known as ECV, which it wants adopted as the underlying software for the national system, known as NECS.

The premiers said they would assess Victoria's system, but last year Victoria was unable to convince other states that its software was suitable and whether it could handle differences in how property was transferred in different jurisdictions.

A national steering committee has struggled to keep the national scheme on track in the face of opposition from Victoria, which tried to scuttle the national scheme and have each state implement its software individually - thereby creating separate online land registries for each state instead of one national registry.

The national steering committee will now be rolled into a new entity answerable to the business regulation working group. COAG aims to have the national system running by 2010.

Simon Libbis, who heads the national electronic conveyancing office charged with setting up the national scheme, said the COAG approach would dovetail with work already done.

"It should overcome concerns that the self-interest of particular jurisdictions or stakeholder groups will dictate outcomes," he said.

Major banks initially co-operated with Victoria on its e-conveyancing platform but walked out once it became apparent that ECV and NECS were headed in different paths. Shortly after, an assessment of the software by other states created doubts about whether it could handle other jursidictions' requirements.

ECV went online in November and has so far been used only once. A conveyancer involved in the transaction, Gayle Nancarrow, said it went smoothly and the only problem with ECV appeared to be a lack of interest from major banks. "It's a good system. It certainly works. There's no doubt about that," she said.

COAG has agreed to re-assess whether the ECV software can be used nationally. But Victoria's opposition government scrutiny spokesman David Davis said the new national system would in effect bypass Victoria. He plans to request the state's auditor-general to investi­gate the matter.

"How could it be that after six years and tens - of millions of dollars only a single transaction has occurred? By any measure this was a failure and needs to be investigated."



Matthew Drummond | FinReview | 4 July 08