ID :
193726
Fri, 07/08/2011 - 13:19
Auther :
Shortlink :
http://m.oananews.org//node/193726
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Final report on school buildings released
SYDNEY (AAP) - July 08 - Victoria and NSW have received poor marks in terms of getting value for money out of the Building the Education Revolution program.
The stimulus program has been the target of sustained attacks from the federal opposition as a waste of money.
The BER taskforce, which investigated 332 complaints over value for money and workmanship issues, released its third and final report on Friday.
Six complaints are continuing.
The $16.2 billion stimulus program involved almost 24,000 construction projects and 92 per cent of those have been completed.
The report said 98 per cent of the program's money has been committed.
It said the highest quality building work for government schools projects took place in Western Australia, the ACT and Tasmania.
"In NSW and Victoria many good and high quality projects have been observed but there have been clusters of poor quality outcomes," the report said.
It said WA, Queensland, the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania had achieved value for money.
The report said Victoria was slow to roll out the program.
The NSW public schools were charged on average $3448 per square metre for all classrooms, halls and libraries built - 60 per cent more than NSW independent schools buildings, which cost $2156sq m.
Victorian public schools also faired badly - they paid $3075 pe sq metre compared to $1975 per sq metre for Victorian independent schools.
The NSW and Victorian governments were responsible for delivering 37 per cent of the program.
"We believe their poorer performance on both cost and observed quality has been influenced by the hollowing out of public works capacity over the last 20 years, which has limited the ability to effectively manage an outsourced delivery model," the report said.
"Their school communities were also disenfranchised. It was a mistake not to embrace school communities more effectively in decision making.
"A proportion of schools could have worked directly with a managing architect to self-manage their projects. Quality would likely have been higher and complaints lower."
The report said the taskforce was disappointed with the inadequate use of environmentally sustainable designs.
The stimulus program has been the target of sustained attacks from the federal opposition as a waste of money.
The BER taskforce, which investigated 332 complaints over value for money and workmanship issues, released its third and final report on Friday.
Six complaints are continuing.
The $16.2 billion stimulus program involved almost 24,000 construction projects and 92 per cent of those have been completed.
The report said 98 per cent of the program's money has been committed.
It said the highest quality building work for government schools projects took place in Western Australia, the ACT and Tasmania.
"In NSW and Victoria many good and high quality projects have been observed but there have been clusters of poor quality outcomes," the report said.
It said WA, Queensland, the ACT, South Australia and Tasmania had achieved value for money.
The report said Victoria was slow to roll out the program.
The NSW public schools were charged on average $3448 per square metre for all classrooms, halls and libraries built - 60 per cent more than NSW independent schools buildings, which cost $2156sq m.
Victorian public schools also faired badly - they paid $3075 pe sq metre compared to $1975 per sq metre for Victorian independent schools.
The NSW and Victorian governments were responsible for delivering 37 per cent of the program.
"We believe their poorer performance on both cost and observed quality has been influenced by the hollowing out of public works capacity over the last 20 years, which has limited the ability to effectively manage an outsourced delivery model," the report said.
"Their school communities were also disenfranchised. It was a mistake not to embrace school communities more effectively in decision making.
"A proportion of schools could have worked directly with a managing architect to self-manage their projects. Quality would likely have been higher and complaints lower."
The report said the taskforce was disappointed with the inadequate use of environmentally sustainable designs.
