The ACT government has confirmed it is investigating alleged unethical behaviour by a company authorised to operate public shared e-scooters.
Beam Mobility said it would appoint an independent auditor to review its operations and was prepared to reach settlements with governments and councils.
The company allegedly used "phantom" scooters to avoid paying government fees and the operator was being investigated by at least five local governments in Australia and New Zealand, The Weekend Australian reported on Saturday.
The ACT said it had received information about Beam Mobility, one of two operators authorised to run shared e-scooters in the territory, in August.
"The ACT government is currently investigating these claims and liaising with other councils and the operator," the spokeswoman said.
"We have no further comment to make as the matter is still under investigation. We take allegations of unethical behaviour very seriously."
The Weekend Australian cited internal messages and emails from within the company about the scheme, which allegedly set a target of adding 150 extra e-scooters in Canberra.
Beam Mobility is authorised to deploy 950 e-scooters in the ACT.
The newspaper reported the information had been separately provided to local governments.
Beam Mobility chief executive Alan Jiang said in a statement the company was "deeply apologetic" for going over vehicle caps but it was not intentional.
"We understand the importance of our social licence in our key markets and recognise that we need to do better in the future to meet the high standards our partners set for us," Mr Jiang said.
"We emphatically reject any suggestion that this was a scheme to deprive councils of revenue."
Mr Jiang said the company was prepared to negotiate commercial settlements with any councils affected "for any issues around noncompliance of our licence".
Mr Jiang said Beam had marked vehicles the company believed to be unusable as inactive in Ride Report, third-party reporting tool used by governments to track vehicles.
"Our intention was to ensure there were an adequate number of usable vehicles available to the public within the limits of the agreed terms with councils and Ride Report's system, however as a result of this approach there have been instances where we have exceeded the vehicle allocation," he said.
Beam Mobility has been authorised to deploy 950 e-scooters in Canberra, with 750 in a central zone between Watson and Narrabundah, and a further 200 in satellite areas.
The ACT government charges Beam Mobility $1 a device each day in the central zone and 50 cents a day for e-scooters in the satellite areas.
Beam Mobility began operating public e-scooters in Canberra in October 2020.
The ACT government worked to set up the shared e-scooter scheme after the vehicles were legalised in 2019.
The government undertook an expression of interest process which selected Beam and Neuron to operate the scooters.
The government-issued permits for the scheme are set to expire later in 2024.
"Prior to issuing any long-term permits (i.e., up to three years) the ACT government will undertake a procurement process to test the market," a government spokeswoman said.
