Last week, the Victorian Auditor-General produced a damning report on the East-West Link fiasco, claiming it will cost taxpayers a net sum of $642 million with “few tangible benefits”, and derided the former Liberal Government for rushing to sign the contract, which “exposed the state to significant cost and risk”.
Now the federal Auditor-General has slammed former Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, for rushing to fund the East-West Link Project despite “clear advice” from the public service that the project had not been justified and was not ready. From The Age:
…federal Auditor-General Grant Hehir has revealed Mr Abbott personally approved the payments for both sections of the road, handing over half the money, $1.5 billion, on the final day of the 2013-14 financial year to maximise the budget deficit in Labor’s final year.
In doing so, the report found Mr Abbott ignored advice from the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development that the money was being paid well in advance of project needs. The audit report, released on Monday, suggested the decision was taken for political purposes, in the absence of any rigorous assessment…
The report said the usual process for funding approving for big infrastructure projects was not followed…
As I noted last time, Australia’s governments must recognise that sound infrastructure investment requires following due process, including transparent cost-benefit analysis, the weighing-up of alternative investment proposals, and choosing projects that provide the greatest net benefits to taxpayers.
Both the former Victorian Liberal Government and Tony Abbott failed on all counts with East-West Link. They should hang their heads in shame.
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