Internal review of South Australia’s planning overhaul found

Unauthorised spending, poor budget oversight and funding problems troubled the state’s costly and controversial planning reforms, FOI documents show.

A planning reform rollout for Adelaide, introducing a new set of rules and online application portal, was beset with budget issues a previously secret review found. Picture: Emma Brasier

An audit of the state’s planning reform program revealed unauthorised spending, poor budget oversight and a funding shortfall and urged the new system be delayed, nine months before the State Government initially deferred the overhaul.

The Sunday Mail fought to obtain an internal review of the controversial planning reform by the program’s former state director who quit less than a year into his role and eight months after raising concerns about management of the costly planning and design code and ePlanning rollout.

Marcus Bal, who was appointed to lead the planning reform project in February 2019, urged timelines be reconsidered and recommended increased funding citing “critical risks” to the overhaul.

In the previously secret program review, authored by Mr Bal in May 2019 and released in a redacted form to the Sunday Mail under Freedom of Information laws, the executive found:

THE original budget was constructed with estimates that were not updated or validated;

NO SYSTEMS or processes to align spending to delivery, and work had been “poorly estimated” and in cases not “fully scoped or even formally approved”.

SPENDING “in many instances” was authorised by personnel with “limited or no direct responsibility” for delivering work.

CONFUSION around roles and accountability for decisions;

CHANGES to the project scope and timelines happened without required approvals through the program’s governance structure and;

THE program’s status and progress was based more on a “gut feel” than on “any quantitative measure”.

In his report Mr Bal warned the “shortfall in remaining time and budget” and the “great deal of outstanding deliverables” would be “detrimental” if not dealt with.

He said consideration was needed to move the “key milestone delivery dates to more realistic time frames” and recommended “more financial support” for the reforms.

Former SA Planning Minister Stephan Knoll delayed a new planning system shortly after the program director Marcus Bal quit.

In January 2020 Mr Bal quit and in February then planning Minister Stephan Knoll announced a three-month delay to the reforms beyond July 2020.

At the same time community opposition was mounting to the reforms amid fears they would leave neighbourhoods worse off, were being rushed through and that the draft rules were riddled with errors.

Around the same time as Mr Bal’s departure, several members of his team also quit.

A planning department spokesperson said Mr Knoll’s delay was based on the advice of a May 2019 planning reform steering committee meeting, consisting of senior reform program executives and senior Attorney-General and Infrastructure and Transport department bureaucrats.

The spokesperson said “all risks” identified in Mr Bal’s report were addressed.

“New leadership arrangements put in place in January 2020 focused on governance and

collaboration, with significant progress being made on the planning reform program,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said an extra $7.9m in reform funding was approved while Mr Bal was employed, with approval given for a further $2.8m “contingency” funding.

“The original budget approved in 2016/17 by the former government was $27.3m, which

as recognised in Mr Bal’s report was considered insufficient to deliver a reform of the scale

proposed,” the spokesperson said.

“As such, an additional $16.3m has been approved to deliver the reform to date.”

Planning Minister Vickie Chapman announced the new planning regime would become fully operational on March 19 after earlier deferring the rollout due to concerns.

The new planning system will become fully operational on March 19 after new planning Minister Vickie Chapman further delayed the reforms last year to allow more consultation on the new code and testing of the ePlanning system.

She told parliament in November that the cost of the new planning system was forecast to hit $43.6m by June, with the bulk of the money coming from an open space fund financed through developer subdivision contributions.

The new planning system will feature a single planning rule book to replace 72 council development plans paired with the nation’s first online ePlanning portal through which applications will be lodged and tracked.

Mr Bal declined to comment.

The Sunday Mail was initially refused access to all documents identified in its FOI application on grounds including it was not in the public interest.

But DIT chief executive Tony Braxton-Smith released redacted reports – including Mr Bal’s audit – on appeal.