Delays, secrecy and waste pile up in BER Victoria projects

A highly centralised approach run by project managers is the main problem with Victoria's implementation of the school stimulus progam.

A highly centralised approach run by project managers is the main problem with Victoria's implementation of the school stimulus progam.

In his first full report released yesterday,  taskforce head Brad Orgill said project managers hired by the previous Brumby government did not adequately consult with school principals and parents.

He said the state had a "history of empowering its school principals and devolving decision-making since the early 1990s" until the implementation of the Building the Education Revolution program. "The Victorian government elected to adopt a highly centralised approach to implementation and engaged private-sector program and project managers to manage regions," Mr Orgill said.

"In the taskforce's view, the latter have not adequately consulted with schools and have not paid enough attention to completion detail and quality."

Mr Orgill found 38 per cent of complaints in Victoria were about value for money and the state was well behind schedule in terms of completion of the projects -- just 23 per cent had been finished.

"This has generated frustration at schools but has allowed selective re-tendering in the pursuit of lower cost," he said. "We anticipate that value for money is attainable for the Victorian government implementation but the evidence to date is insufficient to reach a conclusion."

The Brumby government was criticised by principals and parents for being secretive and locking them out of the process after former education minister Bronwyn Pike said she did not want her "principals standing around watching concrete pours". The government never revealed the exact costs to schools and is yet to publish full costing data.

Berwick Primary School was one Victorian school Mr Orgill identified as failing the value-for-money test, finding the independent cost assessment was about 31per cent below the actual cost.

The school, in Melbourne's outer southeast, was originally entitled to $3 million but was told by the Education Department it could only have a multi-purpose hall for less than $2m.

School council president Jason Barlow said in August he could not believe they were paying that much for the equivalent of a "37-square house with four walls".

Yesterday he told The Australian he was not surprised by the findings."It validates our concerns for the last 12 months," he said. "It's a pity no one listened to us earlier."