Page 498 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 20 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the completion of that project at the Aranda Primary School. Factors which enabled that to occur included retention of the original gutters and downpipes, which were found to be in good condition and not requiring replacement at this stage. I think the major factor in that lower requirement for funds is the current downturn in the building industry, which resulted in highly competitive bidding for that job.
When tenders were called for the Aranda Primary School roof replacement, a wide range of tenders were received. I think it should be noted by Mr Moore, and by the Assembly, that some of those tenders were comparable with the original estimate for the replacement of the roof and the materials associated with it. It is certainly not unusual for market forces to result in exceptionally low tender prices arising from time to time. Fortunately in this case the public purse has been saved some substantial expenditure because of the nature of that work.
The work will be completed by the end of this month and, if Mr Moore would like to examine the accounts that were sent into Public Works for finalisation, I am sure that will be quite okay. Everything there seems to be above board. As I have said, I have not the final figure for the completion of the job, but it should be remembered that some tenders to do that work were around the original quote - around the high $500,000 mark. Many factors affect the highs and lows of estimates and tenders. For example, there is the economic situation - sometimes the national economic situation; and, of course, the political situation can also affect the cost of doing some jobs.
The interesting thing is that Mr Moore concentrates in this motion only on overestimation. What happens when there is underestimation? I notice that Mr Moore's proposal is that the PAC make recommendations on how future surpluses between estimates and expenditure should be handled. What do you do in cases where the amount of money required to do a job is more than that originally tendered? Is the PAC going to make recommendations to the Government on what taxes to raise, what levies should be imposed upon the populace, to make up the shortfall between the money allocated and the final cost? Of course not. Yet you have the foolish notion that the Government is supposed to listen to recommendations from the PAC about what it shall do with excess funds. Nothing could be further from the realms of possibility for the PAC.
There are cases, of course, where additional costs are incurred. One I can think of off the top of my head is a certain refurbishment of the South Curtin school, which has cost the taxpayer more money than was originally budgeted for because of political reasons that we will not go into. Perhaps Mr Moore would like to turn his mind to how we find the money for the additional cost to the taxpayer of that job. Clearly, there are variations. I only wish it were the case that all our public works projects could be
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .