The Auditor General has assessed whether the Department of Finance effectively managed its contracted maintenance of public sector buildings, finding the Department’s system to be “largely effective”.
In her report Public Building Maintenance Auditor General Caroline Spencer said the Department effectively organised maintenance for many State Government entities’ buildings here and overseas, involving around 240,000 maintenance jobs at a cost of $278 million each year.
“The audit examined Finance’s three main maintenance arrangements and found them to be largely effective in managing building maintenance on behalf of other public sector entities, including schools, fire stations, prisons, courts and offices,” Ms Spencer said.
“However, there are opportunities to improve its practices,” she said.
Ms Spencer gave the example of the Department not checking the quality of maintenance work or whether it met safety standards.
She said that in addition it had not reviewed whether the three arrangements remained appropriate, even after key contracts expired.
Ms Spencer said poorly-managed or undeclared conflicts of interest posed a significant risk of fraud in relation to the procurement of maintenance services.
“In a first for this office, using our newly-established Forensic Audit function, we performed a series of data analytic procedures and a data matching exercise to try and identify undeclared conflicts of interest,” the Auditor General said.
“This exercise identified a small number of transactions that have been referred to Finance for further investigation.”
She said the Department used good practices to manage conflicts during the initial procurement of contractors, but there were weaknesses in some areas.
“The audit identified instances where declared conflicts were poorly managed, particularly in regional areas where there is a higher likelihood of close interactions,” Ms Spencer said.
The Auditor General’s 19-page Report can be accessed at this PS News link and the audit team was Jordan Langford-Smith, Mona Loo, Michelle Higgins, Chiara Galbraith, Jacqui Richards, Kevin Ng, Cody Jecks, Ashley Sorbara and Ann George.
