❓ Mr Blayney questions the Minister about underspending on externally funded projects within the Department of Agriculture and Food WA's 2017 Annual Report. The Minister attributes the underspend to reprioritization of resources due to biosecurity incidents.
AnsweredQoN 2610Legislative Assembly
Asked
13 March 2018
Member
Portfolio
Regional Development; Agriculture and Food; Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to page 36 of the 2017 Annual Report for the Department of Agriculture and Food WA and I ask the Minister to: (a) outline the underspend on externally funded projects; and (b) list these externally funded projects and explain how the underspend for each of the externally funded projects arose?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
15 May 2018
Responded by
Minister representing the Minister for Regional Development; Agriculture and Food; Minister Assisting the Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade
Response time
12 days
(a) Page 36 of the Final Report details the former Department of Agriculture and Food WA’s (DAFWA) Total Cost of Services 2016-17 Target ($219 million) and 2016-17 Actual ($200.4 million). As noted in the Final Report, the variance of $18.6 million was partially attributed to underspends on externally funded projects. This is a net position taking into account variances across other expenditure items as detailed on page 122.
Expenditure on externally funded projects under the former DAFWA was primarily captured under supplies and services. Of the $39.1 million underspend in this expense, approximately $23 million was related to externally funded projects.
(b) There were 224 externally funded projects managed by the former DAFWA which contribute to the net underspend in Total Cost of Services as detailed on page 36. Funding parties included the Commonwealth Government, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia and a significant number of other contributors and miscellaneous industry grants.
Providing an explanation for the variance between budget and actual expenditure for each of the 224 individual projects would require considerable work and I do not consider this to be a good use of resources. The primary reason for the underspend across these projects relates to the need to reprioritise work commitments to meet high priority emerging issues such as biosecurity incidents, including the Tomato Potato Psyllid (TPP), Potato Dickeya Dianthicola and Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus. For example, the detection of TPP required the re-allocation of significant resources from business as usual activities to managing the incident, and as a result, the delivery of externally funded projects was impacted.
Expenditure on externally funded projects under the former DAFWA was primarily captured under supplies and services. Of the $39.1 million underspend in this expense, approximately $23 million was related to externally funded projects.
(b) There were 224 externally funded projects managed by the former DAFWA which contribute to the net underspend in Total Cost of Services as detailed on page 36. Funding parties included the Commonwealth Government, the Grains Research and Development Corporation, Meat and Livestock Australia and a significant number of other contributors and miscellaneous industry grants.
Providing an explanation for the variance between budget and actual expenditure for each of the 224 individual projects would require considerable work and I do not consider this to be a good use of resources. The primary reason for the underspend across these projects relates to the need to reprioritise work commitments to meet high priority emerging issues such as biosecurity incidents, including the Tomato Potato Psyllid (TPP), Potato Dickeya Dianthicola and Cucumber Green Mottle Mosaic Virus. For example, the detection of TPP required the re-allocation of significant resources from business as usual activities to managing the incident, and as a result, the delivery of externally funded projects was impacted.
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