Two years ago, the Victorian Auditor-General found that multibillion-dollar projects were being built on the back of “fragmented planning” and secrecy, which is wasting taxpayer dollars.
The Auditor-General also found that the Victorian Government has a “tendency to underestimate costs and over-estimate benefits” of major projects.
This, in turn, “can have consequences for Victorians, such as delays in obtaining needed infrastructure or increased costs”.
Around the same time, the Grattan Institute released a report, entitled “Megabang for megabucks: driving a harder bargain on megaprojects”, which roasted the Victorian Government’s infrastructure waste.
Recent examples of infrastructure waste and mismanagement include:
- The West Gate Tunnel project, whose cost is likely to double its initial $5 billion price tag and is running years behind schedule.
- The level crossing removal project, which has blown out from up to $6 billion to more than $8 billion;
- The $11 billion Metro Rail tunnel, which has blown out by $2.74 billion;
- North East Link, which was originally planned to cost $10 billion and was revised up to $15 billion; and
- The $200 billion Suburban Rail Loop to nowhere, whose cost has more than doubled and has been widely deired by infrastructure experts.
Now it has been revealed that the Victorian Government’s signature Big Build infrastructure program is the subject of multiple investigations into allegations of widespread fraud.
Amongst other things, it has been alleged that labour-hire firms and subcontractors have billed construction firms – and ultimately the government – for so-called ‘ghost shifts’, whereby workers are rostered on for shifts at several different sites at the same time.
The ghost shifts have tended to be at night and on weekends, when wages and penalty rates are much higher.
“Insiders say some of those involved in the rort could pocket $250,000-$350,000 a year due to the massive wages for night shifts and extra shifts”, the Herald-Sun reports.
“There’s a lot of money to be made”, one insider said.
Infrastructure cost blowouts are the primary reason why the Victorian Government is drowning in debt:
Source: Alex Joiner (IFM Investors)
This once again shows that the Victorian Government is the home of waste, mismanagement and infrastructure pork.
