BER investigation run by a biased progressive

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Aussie likes making ASSumptions

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Damning BER Senate report exposes Government cover-up

A damning Senate report into the School Hall program was released by the Gillard Government close to midnight last night to avoid scrutiny, Christopher Pyne, Shadow Minister for Education said today.

“The report finds that the Government’s taskforce investigating waste in the BER has misinterpreted the data, presenting the BER in a favourable light for the Government,” Mr Pyne said.

“By basing the investigation on public complaints and allowing their definition of value for money to ... include a premium on top of construction costs for speed of delivery, means the Australian public has not got a true picture of the enormous waste in the BER,” he said.

“To include a premium for speed of delivery is a joke, as even today the BER remains months and in some cases, years behind schedule.

“The Senate Inquiry also found that there was no evidence to support the overall stimulus effect of the BER when weighted against a contracting residential construction market.

“This is clearly an attempted cover-up by a Government already under siege over its bungles and back-flips.

“The further evidence of this is the Government’s refusal to make public all the contract information for all BER projects.

“The Senate Inquiry has recommended that all contracts be made available, as has the Orgill Taskforce, the Australian Senate, and Julia Gillard herself, who solemnly promised to do so during the 2010 Election.

“I have previously called on the Government to release BER costings on the My School website so people can easily see whether value for money has been achieved. To not do so, in light of this Senate report, is a slap in the face of every Australian taxpayer,” Mr Pyne said.

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BER Cover-up

Wednesday, 18 August 2010 Printer Friendly Version

The Member for Calare, John Cobb said Gillard Government is so embarrassed about the $8 billion BER school hall rip-offs that it has embarked on a cover-up of the BER signs at schools across the region.

Mr Cobb said he wasn’t surprised that the Government was embarrassed about the rip-offs and wanted to hide the fact that toilet blocks, canteens and pre-fabricated modular classrooms had cost up $25,000 a square metre.

“When you walk into the polling both on Saturday and see the signs covered in black plastic remember that this is a monument to Julia Gillard’s school hall rip-offs which directly occurred under her management.

“If Julia Gillard can’t manage the rollout of school infrastructure without wasting over $8 billion how can she be trusted to run our trillion dollar economy,” Mr Cobb asked.

Mr Cobb said he had been informed that Principals at schools which are to be used as polling booths on Saturday had received three letters calling for the signs to be covered up.

“I was told that the first letter asked Principals to cover the signs on polling day.

“The second letter said that they realised Principals may not have the material to cover the signs so they sent black plastic and sticky tape to cover the signs.

“The last letter stated that they realised Principals were very busy and that they had now employed contractors to cover up the signs,” he said.

Mr Cobb said he was amazed the rip-off continues and has called on the Labor Party to come clean on what the cover-up is costing taxpayers.

Oh and it was reported on the radio that some schools have sold their Cola's ? to other schools or organisations that actually need them... what a waste.

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IQS, Nef and those who just want me to post links...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... 6028432052" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

for those who want to see the same stuff without having to go there... just scroll down

BER criticism dumped in dead of night
* by: Lanai Vasek and Lauren Wilson
* From: The Australian
* March 26, 2011 12:00AM

THE federal government-appointed taskforce into the $16.2 billion schools stimulus program "misinterpreted" data to conclude the scheme had achieved value for money in state schools, a Senate inquiry has found.

The final Senate committee report into the Primary Schools for the 21st Century program - released late last night without the notification of the Liberal Party chairman - found there was insufficient evidence to conclude the objective of stimulus had been achieved.

It also raised significant concerns that the government failed to provide it with necessary information to determine whether funding had been used inappropriately for projects that should have been paid for by state and territory governments.

The 70-page report from the opposition-controlled Senate inquiry was tabled after 10pm.

"The committee is unable to form an opinion about the government's much-touted stimulus effect of the P21 spending," it says.

THIS would not be the first government to time the release of official reports in an attempt, when it suits them, to maximise or minimise coverage.

It also took aim at several conclusions of the Building the Education Revolution Implementation Taskforce, headed up by former chief executive of UBS Australia Brad Orgill at a cost of $14 million. "In particular, the committee disagrees with the taskforce's conclusions in some cases that value for money had been achieved," the report says. Orgill was never going to forward a fair and balanced report.

The P21 program - the largest component of Julia Gillard's BER program - committed to delivering more than 10,500 projects by late this year.

The committee noted concern with the collapse of "a number of companies" who were subcontracted to deliver BER projects in NSW.

Among the report's six key recommendations was a call to strengthen accountability mechanisms for oversight of state expenditure of commonwealth funding.

"This should include enhancing the powers of the Auditor-General to 'follow the money trail' to ensure value for money is achieved by the commonwealth for state expenditure of commonwealth monies," the report said.

Key independent Rob Oakeshott has this month moved a private member's bill to strengthen the Auditor-General's powers in a similar way to that recommended by the committee.

Labor senators chose to defend key aspects of program in a separate response, saying it achieved the overarching aim of supporting 120,000 jobs during the GFC. Good grief...

"The program is a tremendous and highly successful investment in primary school infrastructure that has been enthusiastically welcome by schools and communities," the government senators' response said.

But it added: "As was the case at the publication of the committee's interim report in June 2010, government senators acknowledge that not every aspect of the program was delivered flawlessly. Well we are used to this governments delivery of flawed policy.

Last month the opposition-controlled Senate inquiry heard mismanagement of the $16.2bn school halls program had resulted in $2.6bn of waste which, if prevented, could have saved taxpayers from the $1.8bn flood levy.

The BER Implementation Taskforce's first full report, handed down in December, questioned whether government schools in NSW and Victoria received value for money under the program.

It also found NSW public schools paid an average of $3356 a square metre for halls, classrooms and libraries under the BER but Catholic schools paid $2707 a square metre.

The report also revealed that almost one-third of the program's stimulus injection, $5.4bn, was still to be rolled out despite the threat of recession having long passed. The government last night defended the BER taskforce, saying it was underpinned by rigorous and detailed analysis.

The report was tabled out of session and certified by Labor Senate president John Hogg at 10.05pm last night after the NBN debate wrapped up at 10pm.

It was tabled without the knowledge of the committee chairman Chris Back and several other of the Liberal members, including opposition BER spokesman Brett Mason.

"It is very strange indeed that it would be tabled like this . . . it certainly raises suspicions," Senator Mason said late last night.