Source: The Australian THE taskforce into the $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution school's stimulus scheme has called for a review into the construction industry after it found the nation's two largest states had failed to deliver value for money under the program.
The third and final report into the BER, handed down yesterday, found that $1.1 billion was wasted in delivering public school buildings to NSW and Victoria, when compared with their Catholic counterparts.
The report, headed by former investment banker Brad Orgill, called for a Productivity Commission review into the construction industry as a whole after it uncovered a raft of problems in the way projects had been delivered under the scheme.
Mr Orgill found some governments had lost the expertise to properly manage building projects.
"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.
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The taskforce found Victorian and NSW public schools had paid up to 60 per cent more than their private counterparts for buildings, despite delivering projects that were of no better quality, and in hundreds of cases of substantially poorer quality.
When comparing public school buildings delivered to NSW and Victorian schools with Catholic counterparts, $1.1bn was wasted in those states under the program. When comparing the cost of public school buildings in those states with independent schools, that figure blows out to $1.9bn. However, it is fairest to compare Catholic schools with public schools as both have centralised control structures.
For the first time, the Orgill taskforce heavily criticised the Victorian government's handling of the BER and called for more than $45 million worth of funding stimulus to be withheld from the state until numerous problems could be fixed. It found defects in building template designs had led to floods and defects in up to 175 schools, there were safety risks because of sharp metal edges and problems with storm-water drainage.
The federal government immediately agreed to the recommendation, which would mean the final lot of stimulus spending, due in September, would be held until November to allow defects to be fixed.
Mr Orgill said Victoria had been the slowest to deliver projects under the BER, with 56 per cent of school building projects complete by April. "The Victorian government has been the slowest education authority in rolling out the P21 program and many of the quality issues that have come to our attention have only arisen as projects are reaching completion," the taskforce said.
Mr Orgill's final report confirmed his earlier findings that worst excess of the BER occurred in NSW. The taskforce said NSW public schools were charged on average $3448 a square metre for all classrooms, halls and libraries delivered, compared with $2707/sq m for Catholic schools, a 27 per cent premium.
Buildings delivered to NSW public schools cost on average 60 per cent more than buildings delivered to NSW independent schools, which cost $2156/sq m.
Victorian public schools were charged $3075/sq m for buildings compared with $2406 for Victorian Catholic schools and $1975 for Victorian independent schools -- 56 per cent more than for public schools.
In NSW, more than 200 pre-fabricated buildings that had been installed by managing contractor the Reed Group had been reviewed after shoddy work had been discovered.
Concerns raised by the inquiry ranged from examples of "systemic" shoddy workmanship and problems with building certification standards to deficiencies in project management and public works capacity.
The productivity commission last reviewed the industry in 1991 and the taskforce said the nation needed to address the problems of skills, expertise and certification as it faced surging infrastructure demands over the coming two decades.
The main problems facing the industry 20 years ago, such as industrial relations concerns, were different to the problems now.
"We have . . witnessed deficiencies in the quality of workmanship, in project management, in public works capacity and in the framework or private certification," the taskforce said.
"We have climbed over roofs and under buildings, what we have seen in many NSW and Victorian government projects has concerned us."
Mr Orgill said one of the major problems uncovered by the taskforce was that state government public works departments had been cut back or disbanded over the past two decades, leaving the states with very few industry professionals.
"The taskforce has more construction experience than the education department of Victoria which is implementing this program," Mr Orgill said.
Mr Orgill said analysis of BER work suggested the move away from government bodies certifying projects to the private sector was hitting quality. Low completion rates of trade apprenticeships was also hurting the sector, Mr Orgill said, with many semi-trained workers leaving apprenticeships to work in the industry in higher paid jobs. A lack of good teachers was also a concern.
He said lessons from the BER should also be applied across other types of buildings and infrastructure projects delivered by the federal and state governments.
Workplace relations minister Chris Evans said the government had "noted" the call for a productivity commission review of the construction industry and would consider a review "as a forward work program, subject to other priorities".
"The majority of education authorities found to have attained value for money and delivered quality facilities," Senator Evans said.
Federal shadow education spokesman Christopher Pyne said the BER report was a "disastrous report for the Government".
"This is a litany of failure ," Mr Pyne said.
The government either agreed to, or agreed to consider, the taskforce's five key recommendations, which included calls for an improvement in the green credentials of public school buildings and for a national mandatory policy on airconditioning in all government schools. Additional reporting: Milanda Rout
