Page 1924 - Week 06 - Thursday, 9 June 2016
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The second recommendation of the committee is in anticipation that the government will comment on whether or not they have accepted in whole or in part the recommendations. The committee believes that by the last sitting day in August 2017—so this in effect a recommendation to the next government—the government should report one year on as to what the government of the day has done.
What we are recommending here is a summary of actions to date, either complete or in progress, proposed actions, implementation time lines and where actions have yet to commence. The problem, as you would well understand Madam Speaker, is that some of these reports come in at the end of an Assembly and unfortunately do not get picked up by an incoming Assembly.
Recommendations 3 to the government is that it should take appropriate steps to improve the contract management capability of all government contracts it enters into on behalf of the territory. The recommendation states:
This should include: (i) clear allocation of contract management roles within the acquiring entity; and (ii) adequately resourcing, relative to the size of each contract, the respective contract management functions within each acquiring entity to effectively manage the contract(s).
Some of what is in the Auditor-General’s report is that there were contracts that were hardly managed or managed at a poor level of resourcing. Sometimes what was intended by the contract does not occur or is not monitored appropriately. So if we are signing particularly big contracts, let us make sure we are getting value for the taxpayers’ money that the government of the day spends.
Recommendation 4 states:
… that the ACT government take appropriate steps to ensure that all contract acquiring entities within ACT Government monitor contractor performance in accordance with the contract provisions, and where applicable, take appropriate steps to act on contractor underperformance.
Again, if members read the report they will see that there is commentary on the underperformance of contractors.
Recommendation 5 states:
… that the ACT Government take appropriate steps, as part of specific contract provisions, to require contracting entities delivering services on behalf of the Territory to ensure, relative to the size of each contract, that: (i) public interest disclosure policies and procedures are developed, implemented and appropriate steps taken to monitor compliance; and (ii) an employee code of conduct is developed, promoted and appropriate steps are taken to monitor compliance
We really need to make sure that the money is spent wisely and where the contractor is not spending the money wisely, if staff are aware of this, they should have means by which to raise that issue. Ideally, you would think they would do that in house with
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