Canberra Liberals MLA Peter Cain, Shadow Assistant Treasurer, will call today on the ACT Government to improve transparency and integrity on the awarding of public funds through procurement.

In Mr Cain’s opinion, the ACT Government underperforms on management of shared services, major projects, and digital transformation.

“As revealed in Budget Estimates hearings, the Labor-Greens government wasted close to $78 million on the since-abandoned human resource and information management system (HRIMS), demonstrating a complete lack of probity and competence,” Mr Cain said.

The HRIMS project started in 2017, and was discontinued in June. The government explained that that the implementation of the HRIMS Program faced various challenges, including delays caused by the program’s size and complexity, as well as the redirection of resources and priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A recent review of the program revealed issues with project governance at all levels.

“Through the seven years of the program’s development, at no point did the community nor the Assembly have oversight of HRIMS’ flawed implementation,” Mr Cain said.

“News of the program’s failure came only through media reporting. This cannot be allowed to happen again.”

The ACT Auditor-General, Michael Harris, Mr Cain notes, found that the ACT’s procurement management suffered from “a lack of expertise, lack of practice, unawareness, in some cases even naivety”. Testifying before the ACT Budget Estimates hearings in July, Mr Harris also pointed to deficiencies in legislation and failure to follow guidelines.

The status and progression of government and procurement programs was disparate and inconsistently presented, Mr Cain continued. One problem, he argues, was that ACT Government procurement lacked an aligned database, or single source of information, to collate and present the details of procurement and tender data for public scrutiny.

Mr Cain wants the government to set up a digital dashboard to track how contracts are given to consultants, contractors, and third parties, ensuring procurement is transparent and accessible to the public.

“We need a single repository database that tracks tenders and contracts awarded by each individual agency, sorted by procurement packages,” Mr Cain said.

“This should be open for businesses and the public to scrutinise.”

Mr Cain said the ACT Government prioritises larger consultancy firms, even though he had heard from small- to medium-sized local businesses that they offer more competitive tenders – essentially a better product for less money.

“The Auditor-General has released six scathing reports into dodgy procurement contracts and practices in this term of the Assembly alone,” Mr Cain said.

“Improving transparency and reporting mechanisms is the first place to start in ensuring we achieve outcomes and restore community confidence in government.

“The Canberra Liberals have a plan to ensure procurement is effected with absolute integrity and for the ACT’s fiscal strategy to be rescued from a decade of decline under Chief Minister Barr.”

ACT Government response

Chris Steel MLA, Special Minister of State, amended Mr Cain’s motion, on the grounds that the ACT Government had begun a procurement reform program in June 2022, focusing on transparent, evidence-based procurement decisions; supporting the public service, local industries and businesses; and streamlining the legislative framework.

Mr Steel had established the procurement reform program after an independent review of Procurement ACT and consultation with the better regulation taskforce and with industry.

Through the procurement reform program, Mr Steel said, the ACT Government is reforming legislation, processes, and the system, including modernising the ICT systems that support procurement. The Auditor-General’s regular audit reports and insights into the procurement framework are integral to the procurement reform program.

“The Government’s Procurement Reform Program is currently underway implementing reforms to streamline the procurement system to support small and medium businesses recommended by the Better Regulation Taskforce, as well as implementing recommendations from the Auditor-General,” Mr Steel said.

“As part of this reform, the ACT Government is already in the process of modernising the ICT systems that support government procurement. New systems are being designed to better track and document procurement decisions through a centralised system.

“The ACT Government has agreed to all recommendations from the Auditor-General’s audit of the Government Procurement Board, including introducing the Government Procurement Amendment Bill to the Assembly to strengthen oversight of the board in relation to high-risk procurements and implement other reforms to support local business.

“Information about procurements is available online at https://www.procurement.act.gov.au/.  All public tenders, as well as and contracts for $25,000 or over are already publicly available online.”