An audit into the Department of Treasury and Finance’s (DTF) major projects has found the Department’s reporting to be not timely, relevant or sufficient.
In his report Major Projects Performance, Auditor-General Andrew Greaves said he examined the Department’s Office of Projects Victoria (OPV) while also surveying 16 entities responsible for 110 major projects.
Mr Greaves said that while the Department collected useful project data from entities and provided clear performance reports about some major projects, it did not use the data to holistically report on major projects performance to the Parliament and the public.
“DTF and public sector entities’ reporting to Parliament and the public about major projects performance is not clear and objective,” Mr Greaves said.
“In particular, there is no easily accessible or timely public reporting that gives a holistic understanding of major projects performance across the public sector,” he said.
Mr Greaves said public data on major projects focused on costs and expected completion dates and did not usually report on a project’s expected scope and benefits, or the impact a performance variance might have on project outcomes.
He said the DTF’s public reporting on major projects was limited by data presentation inconsistencies; a lack of clarity about who was responsible for each project; a lack of information about projects’ performance against their targets; a lack of timely reporting; and a lack of reporting about expected benefits.
He said Department’s reporting was also limited by a lack of explanation of changes; data errors; lack of sufficient disclosure or explanation of project details; a lack of clarity about the type of investments; and missing major project investments.
Mr Greaves made five recommendations to the DTF and OPV to develop and maintain a public-facing major projects performance dashboard; collect a more comprehensive dataset to support the dashboard; develop a repository of lessons learnt from major capital projects; improve the consistency of disclosure of major projects; and improve data quality and capacity to analyse capital project trends.
The Auditor-General’s 123-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link.
