The member requested the Auditor-General’s advice on whether it was appropriate to implement the Best practice principles: Quality, safe workplaces (best practice principles) referenced in the Queensland Procurement Policy 2021 on the Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A project.
The member also requested QAO investigate the economic outcomes of the following 6 infrastructure projects, which may also have been subject to the best practice principles:
- Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A
- Townsville Stadium
- The Capricorn Correctional Centre
- The Cairns Convention Centre Upgrade
- The Gatton Correctional Centre
- Cross River Rail.
We responded to the member on 24 May 2021.
We advised that we will make preliminary enquiries to obtain more information about the government’s policy. This will include obtaining information about if/how the responsible agencies implemented the best practice principles on projects.
We also advised that we have several infrastructure-related audits on our soon to be released Forward work plan 2021–24. We are not currently planning to add an audit on the economic outcomes of the 6 projects the member listed.
We are currently undertaking an audit on contract management of new infrastructure, which will assess how effectively public sector entities manage contracts for delivery of major new infrastructure.
Status
Completed – We previously assessed and commented on the business case for the Gold Coast Light Rail Stage 3A project in our audit Evaluating major infrastructure projects (Report 14: 2019–20).
Following the request for audit from the member, we obtained information on how and why the Best Practice Principles were applied to this project. An update on the status of this project is included in our Major projects 2022 (Report 7: 2022–23) report to parliament.
In May 2022, we tabled our report on Contract management for new infrastructure (Report 16: 2021–22). This audit assessed how effectively government entities managed contracts for the delivery of new infrastructure. We assessed 6 projects as part of the audit, 3 of which were mentioned in the member’s request:
1. North Queensland Stadium (Townsville)
2. Capricorn Correctional Centre expansion
3. Southern Queensland Correctional Precinct – Stage 2 (Gatton).
On page 15 of this report, we highlighted that the North Queensland Stadium Project included a contract variation of $37.5 million reflecting the cost of applying the best practice principles part way through construction of the stadium. We did not identify any variations resulting from application of the best practice principles for other projects we assessed in that audit.