A WA parliamentary question seeks details about legal and security advice obtained by the Public Transport Authority (PTA) regarding the Huawei UGL contract for the Radio Systems Replacement Project. The answer provides details of legal firms used and costs of security advice.

AnsweredQoN 5174Legislative Assembly
Asked
16 May 2019
Portfolio
Transport; Planning

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to the Huawei UGL contract for the Public Transport Authority's (PTA) Radio Systems Replacement Project, and I ask: (a) Did the PTA seek legal advice prior to finalising the contract and if so on what dates was advice sought; (b) If so, who provided the legal advice; (c) Did the PTA seek legal advice after finalising the contract and if so on what dates was the advice sought; (d) If so, who provided the legal advice; (e) Which security consultant was engaged in providing advice regarding the Huawei UGL contract; (f) What was the cost of the security consultant's advice; (g) What were the dates that the security consultant provided advice; and (h) Has a security consultant been engaged to manage the security measures put in place regarding this contract?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
26 June 2019
Responded by
Minister for Transport; Planning
Response time
11 days
(a)-(b) The Public Transport Authority (PTA) sought advice from the State Solicitor’s Office (SSO) during the development of the business case for the Radio System Replacement Project. The SSO identified the matter as ‘non-core’ work and therefore the PTA engaged commercial lawyers HWL Ebsworth Lawyers with expertise in this field for the period 24/11/2016 to 30/07/2018. There is no requirement through a Treasurer’s Instruction or Premier’s Circular that requires internal SSO advice for a contract such as this. Commercial legal support and PTA internal legal support continued to be used for the later stages of the project beyond the business case.
(c)-(d) The PTA sought and received advice from its General Counsel, SSO and HWL Ebsworth Lawyers on a number of matters associated with this contract.
(e) Refer to Legislative Council Question without Notice 22.
(f) The Estimated total value is $198,000.
(g) Advice relevant to the formulation of cyber security requirements for the radio contract was received by the PTA in August 2018.
(h) Yes

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