Page 368 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
they arise is adequate. It will be improved as the Government recruits further staff; and I am satisfied with the progress being made.
Works Budget Savings
MR MOORE: My question is directed to Mr Kaine, as Treasurer. Mr Kaine, during the period when you were away over Christmas, I drew attention to an anomaly at the Aranda Primary School, where an estimate of $650,000 was made to repair the roof of that school. In fact, the actual cost on the tender was some $148,000, a rough saving to the Government of some $500,000 on that one project. Can you explain to the Assembly how residual money in contracts such as these is then spent, and whether it is going to be considered a genuine saving to our community, as was indicated by Mr Duby?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I am not sure of the facts of the case as Mr Moore presents them; but it is quite clear that the works estimates are just that, they are estimates. In some cases, according to Mr Moore, there is an underexpenditure on that project as opposed to what was originally estimated, but I am quite certain that if I went through it I could find three or four others where the estimate was below the required figure. What we are looking at is spending a total works budget in the course of the year. In some cases it will cost a little more than was expected; in other cases it will cost less. At the end of the year, if there is any money in the budget that is unexpended, it will show up in the net surplus remaining in the budget at the end of the year.
The only way, during the course of the year, that money can be spent for some other purpose is for a submission to be made and for approval to be given to use the money in some different way. None of it can be done without scrutiny; none of it can be done without approval. So there is no suggestion of the money being squirreled away in some fashion, or used illegally.
Electoral Education Centre
MR CONNOLLY: My question is to the Minister for Education, Mr Humphries. Minister, have you renegotiated the continued occupancy of the Electoral Education Centre at Lyons Primary School or determined a commercial rate for that tenant?
MR HUMPHRIES: The Australian Electoral Education Centre - presently at Lyons Primary School - is, of course, the responsibility of the Commonwealth Government, and that particular facility is currently looking at options for location elsewhere in the school system in the ACT. I have
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .