Hon. Kate Doust questions the Finance Minister regarding the awarding of government contracts to Midcon and Briklay, despite concerns raised in their business risk assessments and exceeding prequalification limits. The Minister defends the decisions based on value-for-money and risk mitigation strategies.

AnsweredQoN 379Legislative Council
Asked
7 August 2013
Portfolio
Finance

QuestionView source ↗

BUILDING MANAGEMENT AND WORKS —
CONSTRUCTION SUBCONTRACTOR INVESTIGATION
379. Hon KATE DOUST to the Leader of the House representing
the Minister for Finance:
I refer the minister to pages 34 and 35 of the Small Business
Commissioner's report into the construction subcontractor
investigation.
(1) What
processes were in place to monitor and assess the ability of Midcon and Briklay
to substantially exceed their prequalification level?
(2) Why were
multiple government contracts awarded to Midcon and Briklay after concerns were
raised in each company's business risk assessment?

AnswerView source ↗

I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The value
of each individual contract awarded to Midcon and Briklay was within their
prequalification limit. While the total value of individual contracts awarded
to Midcon and Briklay exceeded that limit, the risk to the state was mitigated
through a program of staggered start and finish dates that allowed trades to
flow from site to site. This approach ensured that the value of work underway
at any one point in time remained considerably lower than the cumulative total
value of all the contracts.
(2) The
decision to award contracts to Midcon and Briklay was based on a
value-for-money assessment that considered a range of factors, including the
financial capacity of the companies in question. Risk mitigation strategies,
including the staging of the work and the engagement of additional supervisory
staff, were also implemented.
Midcon achieved practical
completion on 13 of the 14 projects listed on page 34 of the Small Business
Commissioner's report. Likewise, Briklay achieved practical completion
on all projects listed on page 35.

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