Page 2957 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 June 2012
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Performance Audit Report, Maintenance of Public Housing, August 2008 and page 47 of the Auditor-General’s report where it is noted that “Spotless submitted its proposal to conduct condition audits in June 2006, at a cost of about $300,000 per annum. However, Audit noted that this process did not test the market to provide assurance of value for money. Further, the variation did not fully comply with the requirements of the Government Procurement Act 2001” and that the Minister’s response to the question on notice No 2019 stated that “$380,000 has been allocated for payment to Spotless for carrying out condition audits in 2011/12” and given the findings of the Auditor-General, did the Directorate obtain competitive quotes to undertake the condition audits prior to allocating this payment to Spotless for 2011-12.
(2) How has the Directorate ensured value for money in this procurement process and compliance with the Government Procurement Act 2001.
(3) Given that page 41 of the Auditor-General report notes that “a significant proportion of responsive maintenance tasks relate to tenant-responsible maintenance (TRM). When a tenant calls in with items of this nature, the call centre should advise that the item will be charged as TRM, and that the tenant may wish to consider other means of making good the damage, such as selecting their own tradesperson to do the job. However, it is hard for the tenant to make a correct economic decision as Spotless is not currently able to give a quote for the cost to be charged by the Spotless sub-contractor”, has a quotation system for TRM been developed by the Directorate; if so, how has the Directorate measured its effectiveness.
(4) What was the level of complaints made by tenants with respect to TRM, by month, for the last three financial years to date.
Ms Burch: The answer to the member’s question is as follows:
(1) The TFM contract provides for Spotless to undertake work on a schedule of rates basis. Spotless is paid for this role through a fixed management fee. The condition assessment process is best managed by Spotless to ensure that the data produced is used effectively to guide the annual planned maintenance program. Spotless set the rate for each condition assessment ($115 per residence) in consultation with the Community Services Directorate. Spotless managed the works within their fixed maintenance fee meaning that the full expenditure was on assessments.
(2) The management services provided by Spotless were procured consistent with Government Procurement ACT 2001. The condition audits were carried out under that contract.
(3) The twenty most frequent items of tenant responsibility maintenance for both tenanted and vacant properties have been published with indicative prices on the Directorate website. This process was implemented through consultation with the Joint Champions Group. Details can be obtained from the Directorate website – www.dhcs.act.gov.au.
(4) After careful consideration of the question, and advice provided by the Directorate, I have determined that the information sought is not in an easily retrievable form, and that to collect and assemble the information sought solely for the purpose of
answering the question would be a major task, requiring a considerable diversion of resources. In this instance, I do not believe that it would be appropriate to divert resources from the provision of direct services to clients, for the purposes of answering the Member’s question.
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