Senate releases interim P21 report

By

Mary Fogarty

Primary schools construction program bogged down by waste and mismanagement.

The Senate referred a series of matters relating to the Primary Schools for the 21st Century Program (P21) to the Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee in September 2009 for an inquiry. These matters included: conditions for project funding; the use of local contractors; the role of state governments; timing and budget issues; and the overall management of the program. The P21 program provides $14.1 billion to build new primary school facilities such as libraries, multipurpose halls or classrooms, or to upgrade existing facilities. It is an element of the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program.

The inquiry received 73 submissions by the closing date of April 23. Federation was invited to appear before the Senate hearing on May 18, and the union was represented by myself, Deputy President Garry Zadkovich, Ross Craven (principal of Cassilis PS) and Grant Heaton (principal of Hastings PS). The inquiry did not set a final reporting date but an interim report was produced on June 24.

The interim report covers a range of issues that were highlighted during the inquiry, including how the P21 program was costed, how the funding was delivered and how the implementation guidelines were designed. The report sets out a number of case studies to illustrate problems in the P21 implementation, including: differential outcomes between government and non-government schools; inadequate consultation and communication with school communities; and a lack of evidence that value for money has been achieved under the program. The report also considers the limitations of the P21 program review mechanisms that have been put in place to date. In particular, it questions the effectiveness of the BER Implementation Taskforce.

The committee majority has provided an interim report to the Senate to highlight the serious concerns it has about the P21 program. The committee has been unable to obtain from Treasury the quarterly reports of the states' and territories' spending under the P21 program. The committee majority was not satisfied with the information available to it regarding the true cost of buildings and works carried out under the P21 program. It also believed that the evidence it did receive demonstrated that the rapid rollout of the P21 program, inflexible bureaucracy, inadequate monitoring systems and the failure to properly identify the needs of individual schools, all resulted in significant waste and the mismanagement of taxpayers' money.

The report contains a number of recommendations that the committee majority believed required urgent consideration and action by the government before the final amount of funding was committed under the P21 program. The committee intends to continue its inquiry into the P21 program. In particular, it wishes to investigate the actual costs of the program works as well as scrutinise the P21 review mechanisms, particularly the reports of the BER Implementation Taskforce.

In summary, the report recommends that:

• the remaining P21 funding be provided directly to those government schools that choose to manage their own projects to completion;
• the government immediately require all state and territory education authorities to publish breakdowns of all individual P21 project costs;
• the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations release original applications and project costs as P21 projects are completed, together with an explanation regarding any contract cost variations;
• accountability mechanisms for oversight of state expenditure of Commonwealth money be strengthened;
• the BER Implementation Taskforce be given access to all costings and be able to examine all relevant contracts to enable it to properly discharge its function to assure the community that value for money is being achieved;
• the release of any further BER funding be delayed until the BER Implementation Taskforce reports to the Minister this month and that this report be made public;
• a judicial inquiry be established to inquire into whether the BER program has achieved value for money.

Mary Fogarty is a Research Officer.

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