Page 1751 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 7 June 2022
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(e) observed that the benefits generated by the Light Rail Stage 2A project are probably overestimated, with a significant amount dependent on it facilitating development on the Acton waterfront;
(f) noted that neither the Stage 2A business case nor the economic appraisal provides information or evidence on how Light Rail Stage 2 is expected to accelerate development in the Acton precinct;
(g) reiterated a previous criticism over the lack of a benefits realisation plan committed to in the Stage 2A business case;
(h) advised that, despite an audit request, the Government failed to provide detailed documentation that should have been available in keeping with good practice;
(i) observed that “If the public cannot have faith in and do not have access to reasonable information in relation to this stage, it brings into question the veracity of information that is put out into the public domain for future stages”; and
(j) concluded there was insufficient attention paid to preparation of the economic analysis and a lack of professionalism on the part of the people who put it together;
(2) further notes that an expert witness in the PAC hearing referred to incompetence regarding understated costs and overstated benefits;
(3) affirms the role of an independent audit authority as a vital quality assurance function for ensuring public money is efficiently and effectively expended;
(4) acknowledges the professionalism and expertise of the ACT Auditor-General;
(5) acknowledges the quality of advice tendered by the ACT Auditor-General generally, and specifically, in relation to the Light Rail Stage 2A project;
(6) acknowledges the validity of the ACT Auditor-General’s findings on deficiencies in the business case and economic analysis for the Light Rail Stage 2A Project;
(7) agrees that both this Assembly and the ACT public have not been presented with a proper coverage and transparent appraisal of the true costs and benefits of the Light Rail Stage 2A project; and
(8) directs the Government to provide before the Assembly’s 22 November sitting, a revised business case and economic analysis that properly meets the Auditor-General’s recommendations and findings, including his views offered in the Public Accounts Committee hearing on 12 May 2022.
At its core, this motion calls upon the government to do what the Auditor-General expected them to do, what the Liberals and the Canberra public expect them to do and what, on some days—some days—even the Greens want them to do. The motion simply calls for transparency.
You guys are in the middle of delivering the single most expensive piece of infrastructure in the history of self-government in the ACT, and the people who voted for you, as well as the people who did not, deserve to know that they are getting value for money. This motion calls upon the government to do what the Auditor-General
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