Page 8 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 15 February 2011
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It goes on to say:
To assist with this, the Committee is also of the view that it should be provided with an opportunity to assess the business case, and the economic and environmental analysis, for the whole-of-government office building proposal compared to alternative options or scenarios …
So it is very important that we get this right. It is a big investment. We know that funds are tight. Let us make sure that the decision is made to give the best to all of the ACT. That simply leads to recommendation 1:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government make no final decision with regard to the whole-of-government office building project until the Standing Committee on Public Accounts has received a copy of the business case, and the economic and environmental analysis, together with any other relevant considerations, and had time to consider this information and report to the ACT Legislative Assembly.
This is, of course, a unanimous report. Recommendation 2 reads:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government provide the Standing Committee on Public Accounts with an assessment of the opportunity cost of a whole-of-government office building project against other significant infrastructure projects, such as the Majura Parkway, a light rail network, a new convention centre, or a third major hospital—
which the health minister is keen to talk about. If we go back to the original report from the Auditor-General, the audit report stated:
The ACT Government, however, did not have a whole-of-government office accommodation strategic plan to assess its future needs and inform its current accommodation strategy.
The audit was advised that work was expected to commence shortly on the development of such a plan. Indeed, the committee was told that as well. Initially we were told that the government advised that the whole-of-government accommodation strategy would commence after a final decision had been made on the development of a new major office block. However, in the course of its inquiry to date, the committee was told that work had commenced on the development of the strategy to respond to short and medium-term accommodation needs.
If the work has been done then there is no need for a decision to be made until the public accounts committee, charged with scrutinising government expenditure, receives that information. Again, the committee in paragraph 3.36 says:
The Committee has reservations that the proposal to construct a whole-of-government office building may proceed before the Government has completed its whole-of-government accommodation strategy.
It goes on, at 3.37, to say:
A strategy of this kind is a high level document that sets the framework for planning and decision making …
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