|
|
|
|
 | Cathy Freeman (Gold, women’s 400 m) |
| Simon Fairweather (Gold, men’s individual archery) |
| Michelle Ferris (Silver, women’s cycling) |
| Brad McGee (Bronze, men’s track cycling) |
| Shane Kelly (Bronze, men’s cycling) |
| Gary Niewand (Silver, men’s cycling) |
| Kate Slatter & Rachel Taylor (Silver, rowing) |
| Simon Burgess, Darren Balmforth, Rob Richards, Anthony Edwards, Chris Ryan, Alastair Gordon, Nick Porzig, Robert Jahrling, Michael McKay, Stuart Welsh, Daniel Burke Jamie Fernandez, Brett Haymen (Silver, rowing) |
| Annemarie Forder (Bronze, women’s air pistol) |
| Petria Thomas (Silver & Bronze, swimming) |
| Michael Klim (2 x Gold, 2 x Silver, swimming) |
And many team members of: Women’s basketball; Men’s basketball; Women’s hockey; Men’s hockey; Women’s water polo and Men’s water polo.
"With many events still to be completed, there will be more AIS athletes who will achieve personal bests and hopefully more medals for Australia.
"The AIS should be very proud of the magnificent contribution they have made to Australia’s sporting success and the overall success of the Sydney 2000 Olympics", Senator Lundy said.
68/00. Contact: Simon Tatz on 02-6277 3334 or 0418 488295
The Australian National Audit Office Report which highlighted the multiple failings of the Coalition’s IT Outsourcing program, exposes Telstra's role in the Group 5 contract won by Advantra, Shadow Minister assisting on Information Technology, Senator Kate Lundy said today.
The Auditor General revealed that: "In December 1998, OASITO advised the Group 5 Steering Committee that it had advised all tenderers that, at that stage, there was no business case to outsource." (page 140)
The report also reveals that the revised pricing by Advantra, provided on March 8 1999, was still $7 million above Group 5’s cost baseline. Further negotiations between the parties led to a miraculous reduction in the bid by Advantra by $7 million. Advantra had not been selected at that stage, with the preferred tender not endorsed until the 25 March 1999.
The Auditor’s Report finding on the Group 5 tender outcome states:
In the Group 5 tender process, it was not until seven months after the tenders closed in August 1998 that potential savings for the group were identified. The successful tender was offered savings over the five year term of $0.96 million or about 1% of the total Group cost baseline…. A written briefing confirming the outcome of final contractual negotiations with the preferred tenderer was not provided to the Minister for Finance and Administration prior to the execution of the Services Agreement.
(page 143)
Advantra, at the time of winning the Group 5 contract, were a consortium of Telstra (50%), IBM (30%) and Lend Lease (20%). Speculation at the time of the tender suggested that this combination allowed the partners in IBMGSA, also a Telstra, IBM and Lend Lease consortia, to access the IT outsourcing contracts as an ‘Australian’ company. This would assist a Coalition under pressure for excluding Australian companies from tendering.
The
Audit report also implicates Telstra, the‘majority member of the joint venture forming the company agreeing to become a party to the contract’ as failing to provide a ‘Deed of Performance’ on or before the required date of 31 May 1999. This deed was the main form of protection for agencies in Group 5 in the event of a substantial failing on behalf of Advantra. Execution of the ‘deed of performance did not occur until over a month later, including 6 days after the commencement of the Services Agreement.Since the Group 5 contract has been awarded, IBM and Lend Lease have departed and Advantra is now a fully owned subsidiary of Telstra.
This experience demonstrates that the Coalition, through the Department of Finance, facilitated the manipulation of process, scope and financial calculations to ensure that the political outcome desired by the Minister for Finance was achieved.
However even these efforts were not enough. The Audit Report calculated a net cost of the IT Outsourcing to Group 5 agencies of $5.71 million. Group 5 Agencies include Transport & Regional Services, ACCC, PM&C, DoCITA and DISR
.67/00 Contact Simon Tatz 0418 488 295
The Howard Government has squandered the last four years, missing opportunity after opportunity for significant growth in information technology and telecommunications (IT&T). Over this period there were no less than five reports explicitly recommending strategies to grow our IT&T industry, and our presence in information technology.
The five reports are:
| Spectator or Serious Player |
| The Mortimer Report |
| The Goldsworthy Report |
| The Chief Scientist's Report |
| The Miles Report |
Evidence that John Howard and Richard Alston are not properly positioning Australia is demonstrated by the specific failing of the Coalition's IT outsourcing program in terms of both economic efficiencies and industry development.
The recent Audit Office Report into IT outsourcing presents a report card that makes it clear that the much-heralded program has been a resounding failure in terms of the lack of savings and efficiencies to Government. The Auditor General found that the outsourcing program is way behind schedule, flawed in its implementation, and had spent nearly three times its budget for management costs.
Regrettably, the IT outsourcing program has also failed to deliver significant industry development opportunities for the local Australian IT industry. This failure means that the Howard Government has thrown away a golden opportunity to use its massive IT expenditure to grow local IT companies. The local IT industry rightfully complained that the massive size of the outsourced IT contracts effectively excluded participation by Australian IT companies. Indeed, even where industry giants were obliged to meet minimal local content (a mere 10% requirement) at times not even this obligation was met.
This squandered opportunity has only been compounded by the more general failure of the Howard Government to commit to decent incentives for business investment in research and development, leading to a decline in this area of investment. Worse, the Government’s shortsighted decision to actively reduce investment in higher education over the last four years, has contributed significantly to skills shortages in IT&T.
Last time Bill Gates was here, in 1998, he warned the Coalition about the central importance of the IT&T sector: the Ministers took the photo opportunity then closed their ears.
No wonder Gates said in Melbourne this week that Australia has to act now if it wants to compete successfully in the new global economy. We have to compete aggressively for the best IT talent, link the IT resources of the business sector and our excellent universities, and – most importantly – improve broadband access for Australian consumers and companies.
Australian people have proved they readily adopt new technology. The private sector has been quick to see the benefits and opportunities available in improved IT&T. And Australian researchers and IT people are regularly at the forefront of innovation.
The missing link is leadership from the Howard Government.
66/00 For further information please call Kate Lundy 0419 421 553
The Australian National Audit Office has provided the Coalition with a comprehensive report card in their IT Outsourcing Program," Senator Lundy, Shadow Minister Assisting on Information Technology said today.
"In five critical areas, Minister Fahey has clocked five resounding ‘FAILS’, with the Audit Office documenting significant flaws and exposing critical failings across the management, implementation and outcomes of the program.
| Management |
Originally the initiative was supposed to have been completed by June 1999. This was blown out to December 2000. Now it clear that at least four of the tenders will not be completed by this date. By May 2000, only six tenders had been completed
Budget of $13m administration and implementation by OASITO has blown out to $33m, with less than half of the contracts let.
$25.78m, or 60% of these costs were paid to three ‘strategic advisers’. These advisers are on the payroll of a New York based legal firm engaged originally by the Department of Finance without a competitive tendering process. The fees paid to these lawyers are equivalent to salaries of $1.7m for the ‘partner level advisor and $1.08m for the other two. These advisers continue to work full time on these rates in the Canberra office of OASITO.
| Savings |
Upon implementing the IT Outsourcing Program, the Department of Finance cut agency budgets in anticipation of savings which the Minister promised would be forthcoming. These cuts in the 1997 and subsequent budgets have meant many agencies and departments have had to pull money out of other program areas to backfill the ‘gap’.
Those agencies with IT outsourcing contracts finally in place failed to achieve the savings and those agencies without a contract in place had no opportunity to even try and achieve them.
Of the three tenders that were implemented, none reached these ‘bottom-line’ savings for agencies. In fact, when all the ‘flesh’ of out of scope IT expenditure is added, to overall costs, Senate budget estimates evidence showed that IT costs were actually higher than ever before for some departments.
Cluster 3 agencies fell, on average, 20% short of achieving the promised savings break-even point. The Tax Office fell 49% short and Group 5 agencies fell a massive 97% short of their promised savings outcomes. In dollar figures, the agencies have suffered a NET cost for outsourcing their IT under the Coalition program.
| Fulfilling contracted service levels |
Financial penalties for failing to achieve contracted service levels are built into the IT outsourcing contracts. These financial penalties are clocked up as ‘service credits’ for the vendor and presumably deducted from their next progress payment.
Each vendor has failed, in varying degrees, to deliver on contracted service levels. In addition, this in-built penalty system allows for continual contract failure to become an ‘economic consideration’ fo vendors, and disempowers agencies to seek redress through cancellation of the contract. This has the effect of ‘institutionalising’ poor service.
EDS, in their contract with the Australian Taxation Office, failed to achieve 1.5% of their contracted service levels, resulting in a financial penalty of $1.1m.
CSC, in their contract with Cluster 3 Agencies, failed to achieve, on average, 6% of their contracted service levels, resulting in a financial penalty of $2.4m.
Advantra, the fully-owned subsidiary of Telstra, in their Group 5 contract with agencies, failed to achieve an appalling 18% of the contracted service levels, resulting in $960,000 worth of financial penalties.
| Industry Development |
One of the most criticised features of the Coalitions IT Outsourcing Program was the way the massive laterally ‘clustered’ and vertically integrated contracted contracts effectively excluded participation by Australian IT companies by their sheer size.
Just prior to the first contract being signed with CSC, the Coalition succumbed to industry and political pressure and inserted and industry development clause into the contract. This clause required that vendors give Australian IT companies at least 10% (in contract value terms) of the work.
The Audit Office tested the performance of CSC, EDS and Advantra and found that Advantra alone failed to involve Australian companies tot he specified level, achieving a mere 6% of the required 10%. This constitutes a serious breach of contract.
This result will infuriate local IT companies familiar with Advantra’s treatment of at least one Canberra-based company. Wizard Computer Training were engaged by Advantra in the Group 5 contract and participated in the ‘PR’ session with the Minister on how little aussie companies were reaping rewards from the exercise. Lo and behold, literally the next day, Advantra laid an ultimatum at their feet – accept our lower price or we get someone else. WCT couldn’t afford to lose money on the job. When this shameful episode was presented to the Coalition, the Government defended Advantra’s action, saying they had engaged another little aussie company to do the work, and that was all the clause required.
To date, the US multinational corporations have secured all of the large contracts. Advantra (Group 5)and Ipex (Group 8) contracts were both worth less than $80m, with EDS, CSC and IBM the big winners with over $1 billion worth of work in IT for the Commonwealth Government.
| Privacy |
The Audit report concludes that as at August 2000, full security certification of the Cluster 3 computer network had not yet been obtained in line with contractual obligations. There are also unfulfilled obligations with respect to provacy in the Group 5 and ATO contracts.
This is despite continual assurances through Senate estimates committees that the provisions of the Privacy Act 1988, applying to Commonwealth Government Agencies, were applied in full through a contractual clause and, by implication, fully complied with. The Audit Report demonstrates the ineffectiveness of contract clauses to protect the privacy of citizens and highlights the urgent need for private sector privacy legislation.
65/00 For more information, contact Simon Tatz on 02-6277 3334 or 0418 488295
The Auditor-General Performance Audit, Implementation of Whole-of-Government Information Technology Infrastructure Consolidation and Outsourcing Initiative, tabled today, exposes major flaws and cost blow-outs in the IT Outsourcing Program.
The report also exposes massive financial penalties for vendors who have not met contracted service levels. For example:
Financial penalties accrued by EDS (the IT Outsourcing vendor for the Australian Taxation Office) were $1.1 million, representing 1.5% of service charges paid.
Financial penalties accrued by Advantra in the Group 5 contract were $960,000, representing 18% of relevant service charges.
Additionally, financial penalties accrued by Cluster 3 were $2.4 million.
"The most significant aspect of the Auditor-General’s report is that it once and for all reveals that there are no savings from the Coalition’s IT Outsourcing Program, Senator Lundy said.
The audit report also confirms that agencies were required to deliver savings pre-determined by the Minister for Finance, or failing this, to find their budget reductions from other agency sources.
The audit report found that agencies have not been able to achieve savings anywhere near their budget cuts, resulting in net shortfalls across Cluster 3, ATO and Group 5 of $24.6 million.
The report further identified the extraordinary amount of money spent on ‘strategic advisers’ to the Office of Asset Sales and IT Outsoursing (OASITO), where the original budget of $13 million has been exceeded threefold to $33.17 million.
$25.78 million of this went on advisers fees.
"I reaffirm Labor’s call for the Minister to halt this failed program to limit the damage.
"It is clear that the parliament must be given the opportunity to investigate this debacle," Senator Lundy said.
64/00. Contact: Simon Tatz on 02 - 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295.
The Shadow Minister for Sport and Youth Affairs, Senator Kate Lundy, today welcomed a report prepared by the Australian Institute of Criminology, which found that sport offers a diversion from criminal activities.
"The report, Crime Prevention Through Sport and Physical Activity by Margaret Cameron and Colin MacDougall, reveals that sport acts as a ‘positive’ by providing a sense of loyalty and belonging. These are very important elements in ensuring the betterment of young people’s lives," Senator Lundy said.
The report concluded that sport and other physical activities, in combination with other interventions, can reduce crime in particular groups and communities. Furthermore, sport can reduce crime because it provides both accessible and appropriate activities in a supportive social context.
The Australian Institute of Criminology report examined overseas schemes which offer young offenders diversionary programs based on sporting and recreational activities.
The report concluded that these types of programs, which have also been successfully organised by Aboriginal community leaders, act as a catalyst for social cohesion and the reinforcement of traditional values.
Earlier this year, Professor Colin Tatz’s report to the Criminology Research Council, Aboriginal Suicide is Different, emphasised the positive role sport plays in addressing youth suicide, anti-social and criminal behaviour in some indigenous communities.
Professor Tatz found that sport provides attainable goals and role models for young people at risk, provided there is a definable pathway from local sporting competitions to elite sport.
"Sport plays a central role in Australian society, and we must recognise that community cohesion and individual well-being is enhanced through organised sporting activities," Senator Lundy said.
63/00. Contact: Simon Tatz on 02 - 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295
The Minister for Sport, Jackie Kelly, has finally admitted that she has shelved Shaping Up, the $270,000 Oakley report into the future of sports funding in Australia.
In an interview on Nightline, the Minister disowned her own costly review that she commissioned in October 1998, and promised yet another expensive inquiry into sports funding after the Olympics.
This will be the third report Minister Kelly has commissioned into sport.
Asked why she has not addressed a single recommendation in the Oakley report, which she received in November 1999, Minister Kelly told Nightline:
Certainly they are looking for a definitive paper from government. We will be producing that after the Olympic Games when we’ve actually seen the final effects of the Games.
Minister Kelly’s admission confirms that the Coalition has broken their election promise to commission a White Paper on sport and recreation to set funding in place before the Olympic Games.
Given the anxiety about future sports funding, this is a slap in the face for Australian sport.
The sporting community were told that the $270,000 Oakley report was the Coalition’s White Paper for sports funding, confirmed by the Minister who spent the past year claiming that the Oakley report:
[will be the] "greatest change in the administration of Australian sport and recreation in recent history" (Canberra Times 2/6/99)
[will be] "the most far reaching assessment of Australian sport in 20 years" (Press Release 99/171, 8/6/99)
[is] "the most thorough look at sport and the sports industry in Australia in 25 years" (Sunday Telegraph 28/2/99)
"the review process [will] assure strong policy direction for the next 10 to 15 years." (Press Release 99/156 1/6/99)
Minister Kelly is a do nothing Minister and now she has finally admitted that in two years, all she has done is shelve one costly report and call for another one.
After losing $16 million and Olympic Athlete Program funding, it’s no wonder the Australian sporting community is concerned about our post-Olympic future under a Coalition Government.
62/00. Contact: Simon Tatz on 02 -6277 3334 or 0418 488 295
|
|
