Costly lesson

By Bridget Cook
BERWICK Lodge Primary School principal Henry Grossek has called on the Deputy Prime Minister to freeze the tendering process for the Building the Education Revolution (BER) program.
The call came after the head of the Building the Education Revolution (BER) Implementation Taskforce, Brad Orgill, visited the school on Friday.
The BER taskforce was set up to investigate complaints and refer matters back to the state and territory education authorities if required.
Mr Grossek said that a freeze was required on all government P21 projects, where the tendering process had not been completed, and started again.
He made a suggestion to the taskforce that schools should be able to appoint their project managers and have templates for new school buildings redesigned and tendered out in an open tendering process.
“If this is not done, then the government schools that are still in the tendering pipeline will be condemned to the same fate as those before them – template buildings that deliver about $2 value for every $3 spent,” Mr Grossek said.
“They will face a bill of up a quarter of a million dollars to fit out and service the buildings to a level consistent with expectations for existing school facilities.”
Mr Grossek employed Sean Hamilton, from Berwick Design and Drafting, to provide a quotation for the template building of the school’s choice – a library and six classrooms.
He also used the voluntary services of Swift Constructions to examine the template building, offered to the school as part of BER valued at $3 million, from a value for money perspective.
“The preliminary report we received yesterday (20 May) was very disturbing.
“In the words of the quantity surveyor (Swift Constructions), the template is an architectural wank,” he said.
“Sean Hamilton has been in the industry for more than 20 years and is adamant that he could deliver a library/six classroom facility with the existing template floor space for $2 million.
Mr Grossek told Mr Orgill that they were in grave risk of wasting about $3 billion nationwide on the government P21 template buildings unless the Deputy Prime Minister Julie Gillard intervened now.
Mr Orgill said they hoped to visit about 100 schools, particularly those who had had problems or complaints.
He said they would be taking feedback, particularly addressing the issues of lack of communication and value of money.
“The first public report is expected to be put out in August,” he said.