Page 1698 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 1 May 2012
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MR SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: In the Director-General’s 24 April statement, it stated that there were further controls in place, but she was unable to confirm on 26 April whether they had actually started. Minister, how can the community be confident that the current data has not been deliberately manipulated?
MS GALLAGHER: I refer you back to the Deputy Chief Minister’s statement made this morning. I believe he outlined responses and immediate changes that had been made to date.
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: Yes, Mr Speaker. Why did you not have controls in place to adequately validate data before this incidence of data manipulation?
MS GALLAGHER: We will certainly wait for any recommendations that may come from the audit that is currently underway. The advice to me is that there were controls in place. Whether they were adequate I think probably has a question mark above them now. There were what were seen to be adequate controls in place. There are always improvements you can make. The data was validated. Again, going on what information I have, the data was changed following that validation process.
Business—development
MS LE COUTEUR: My question is to the Minister for Economic Development and is in relation to support for local companies, which was announced in the new business development strategy yesterday. A newly proposed process for tendering for ACT government contracts introduces new evaluation criteria for all goods and services tenders which put a weighting on whether or not the tenderer is a local small to medium enterprise and/or has involvement with local businesses. How can these criteria be effective and ensure that local companies are selected when they would not otherwise be and still adhere to competition principles?
MR BARR: I thank Ms Le Couteur for the question. Other states and territories have similar practices in relation to their procurement guidelines. As I indicated in my public statements in relation to this, we will ensure that we are consistent with both our interstate and international trade agreements.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Le Couteur, a supplementary.
MS LE COUTEUR: Yes, Mr Speaker. How was involvement with local businesses actually defined and what criteria will be used to evaluate it?
MR BARR: The information in relation to these new procurement guidelines will be made public when the new guidelines come into place in 2013.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Hunter, a supplementary.
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