A performance audit into the manage by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts’ into its ArtBank program has found the Department’s approach to be acquiring, managing and leasing Australian contemporary art and had not been appropriate.
In his report The Acquisition, Management and Leasing of Artworks by Artbank, Auditor-General Grant Hehir said the Artbank program was a contemporary art collection and rental scheme with nearly 11,000 works spanning media that included painting, sculpture, video and photography.
“The Artbank program’s approach to acquiring, managing and leasing Australian contemporary art has not been appropriate,” Mr Hehir said.
“While the 1991 Artbank Charter of Operations established a clear purpose for the program, the Department has not developed an overarching strategy to support the direction of the program or measure its success,” he said.
“The Department’s approach to acquisitions under the Artbank program has not been in accordance with the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) and has not demonstrated strong alignment with the targets established in the program’s collection plan designed to illustrate the Department’s strategy to deliver against the program’s policy intent.”
Mr Hehir said key shortcomings in the acquisition approach included no open or competitive processes; value for money not being documented or demonstrated; and limited public reporting.
He said alignment with the program’s purpose and objectives was not evident due to deviations from the Department’s Collection Plan for the Artbank program.
“The Department’s management of the Artbank collection is insufficient to ensure the integrity of the collection,” the Auditor-General said.
“Conservation activities are not consolidated, prioritised, committed and reviewed against a planned, wholistic schedule,” he said.
“Records of deaccessioning, the formal removal of artworks from a collection, are unreliable.”
Mr Hehir said the Department’s approach to leasing the Artbank collection had not been appropriate, with rental revenue in decline since 2017–18.
He said the Department’s documented target was to have at least 70 per cent of the Artbank collection out on rent, however it had leased approximately 40 per cent of the collection, “which is well below this target.”
The Auditor-General made eight recommendations to the Department focused on governance of the program, procurements, conservation and rental approaches.
The Auditor-General’s report can be accessed at this PS News link and a 81-page pdf version at this link.
The audit team was Hannah Conway, Lachlan Miles, Tamara Duncan, Josh Carruthers, Calli Stewart, Amy Willmott and Brian Boyd.
