In a damning exposé, Council's bungled transition to a new waste contractor on July 1st, 2023, has been laid bare. The scathing independent review reveals a litany of failures by both the inept Port Phillip Council and the woefully incompetent Citywide, the appointed waste collection company. Citywide's refusal to accept any responsibility for the chaos only hints at the looming battle, with the report bluntly stating that the contracted services are financially unsustainable.

Despite substantial improvement to the services, the contract is not financially sustainable and demand for more resources is likely to result in a renegotiation of the pricing, effectively holding ratepayers hostage to the ineptitude of all parties.

Residents were left seething as entire streets were neglected, individual homes and laneways were ignored, and bins lay abandoned for days on end, some left to rot for weeks. While neighbouring Bayside managed a seamless transition, Port Phillip floundered in a sea of incompetence.

The previous quarter-century of reliable waste collection under Four Seasons Waste was discarded without a second thought, replaced by Citywide following a supposedly "competitive" tender process. Yet, the seven-year contract, with a dubious three-year extension option, has proven to be nothing short of a ratepayer-funded nightmare.

The heart of the issue lies in Council's and Citywide's woeful inadequacy – a deficiency in waste collection trucks resulting in a tsunami of missed bins across residential areas, laneways, and high-density developments. The review highlights a litany of factors contributing to this debacle, from inadequate preparation and data discrepancies, to implementation failures and procurement blunders.

Citywide was required to provide Council with the maps 6 weeks prior to commencement and this did not happen and was not escalated by either party. The Council did not request them when they were not provided. This raises the question of who was managing the project? Were Council officers asleep at the wheel?

Citywide's readiness for service was nothing short of a sham, with their failure to communicate their lack of preparedness leaving the Council blindsided from day one. Delayed submission of waste collection schedules and shoddy route planning only added fuel to the fire, as did the glaring data gaps and inaccurate information that plagued their operations.

The transition to an ICT-enabled waste management system was nothing short of disastrous, with Citywide's ineptitude further compounded by a lack of transitional arrangements between outgoing and incoming service providers. Meanwhile, the Council's governance structures resembled a sinking ship, lacking the specificity and focus needed to steer this train wreck back on track.

The decision to appoint Citywide reeks of incompetence and negligence, with pricing taking precedence over sustainability in a procurement process marred by a lack of transparency and inadequate evaluation. Citywide's thinly veiled threats of vast additional costs and service disruptions only serve to underscore their blatant disregard for accountability.

Despite ongoing discussions, Citywide's refusal to acknowledge their abysmal performance speaks volumes. False claims of cost-cutting by Councillors are baseless in the face of a report that reveals a glaring lack of transparency and accountability.

In the wake of this fiasco, one thing is abundantly clear – the Port Phillip Council's incompetence, coupled with Citywide's gross mismanagement, has left ratepayers footing the bill for a monumental waste of time, resources, and dollars.