AUDITOR-GENERAL Maxine Cooper has presented the report on the Bulk Water Alliance to the Speaker, for tabling in the ACT Legislative Assembly.

This report includes consideration of the cost and timing of the construction of the Enlarged Cotter Dam.

“The construction of the Enlarged Cotter Dam was a high value, complex and long-term project and as such ACTEW’s use of an alliance to deliver it and the Murrumbidgee to Googong Pipeline was appropriate and effective. This was despite a cost overrun for the Enlarged Cotter Dam and all three projects under the alliance being overdue,” Maxine said.

“The Enlarged Cotter Dam’s final cost of $410.5 million exceeded the final estimated cost of $363.0 million (Target Outturn Cost of $299 million in Bulk Water Alliance costs and ACTEW’s direct costs of $64.0 million) established in September 2009. An estimate of $145.0 million developed by ACTEW and presented to the ACT Government in 2007, prior to the establishment of the Bulk Water Alliance, was preliminary and did not include all of the anticipated costs. The Enlarged Cotter Dam project was 20 months overdue.

“While a ‘lean’ Target Outturn Cost was established for the Enlarged Cotter Dam project, which aimed at achieving better performance from ACTEW’s alliance partners, and minimising overall costs, some costestimates were based on unrealistic construction schedules. Unforeseeable events, including the 1:100 year flood, while impacting on schedule and cost, do not fully account for the extent of the overrun.

“The increased time and costs of the Enlarged Cotter Dam project were due to: a previously undetected geological fault a (not a reasonably foreseeable risk); a slower than forecast rate for excavating and cleaning up the foundations of the dam in preparation for the placement of the dam wall (a foreseeable risk); slower than anticipated placement of roller compacted concrete in the dam wall (a foreseeable risk); additional work to prepare for, and mitigate, flood events at the site (some were foreseeable, others not).

“While there were delays in providing cost information about the Enlarged Cotter Dam to the public there is no documented evidence that ACTEW or the ACT Government sought to deliberately mislead or deceive the public.”

The full report is available online.

[Photo by Silas Brown]