Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

None . . Page.. 1584 ..

This group, chaired by Treasury, with representatives from the ACT Planning Authority, Estate Management, sponsoring agencies and Public Works and Services, assesses the quality of project submissions from departments and agencies. This includes project costings, justifications and cost benefit studies.

All I can say is that that group, if it still exists, has failed miserably, because there were so many projects that came to the Government and to the committee this year where the costings were not complete; where the justification was incomplete; and where, in some cases, where one would have expected them, there were no cost-benefit studies. The only thing that the committee can do is to continue to make recommendations to the Government and to the Assembly to try to get some improvement in performance.

I just mention that over a period of years various committees have made recommendations as to how the program, when it is put forward, might be improved. I would like to quote one or two of them. In fact, the first is from the most recent, the 1993-94 report. There was no report in 1994-95 because of the timing of the budget. But in 1993-94 - in terms of trying to get a handle on the projects themselves, what their priority was, how much they were going to cost, and where they fitted into the scheme of things - although we made a large number of recommendations, there were three in particular that bear on that problem. One of them was:

That the Capital Works Program include a status report on all projects carried over from previous years, identified by project.

We did not see such a thing this year. Another one was:

That the Capital Works Program include information updating the status of items that appeared in the previous year's forward design program ...

The interesting thing about forward design programs is that this year you will get a number of items included in the forward design program, and then they completely disappear; they do not show up next year. Although they were considered to have a priority sufficient to justify their inclusion in a forward design program in one year, they just disappear. There is no explanation as to why they disappeared or whether they are going to pop up in future years or anything of the kind. But that information update did not accompany this year's program.

Another one was:

That the Capital Works Program include information on an agency's list of outstanding new works, in order to provide an insight into the type of projects being considered for future years.

That referred to not only the ones that appear in the forward design program for next year but also other significant projects that are simply in the pipeline and that are expected to come forward in future years.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .