On 14 May, the government announced that it intended to release almost $870 million of estate works to the market over three years to support defence industry through the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it appears that only one of the 91 work packages scheduled for release in the last two months has resulted in a grant.
In the announcement, Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said that the Forward Release Program aimed to sustain the pipelines of Australian businesses through over 300 work packages.
“This announcement is aimed at sustaining a steady pipeline of work for thousands of Australians, on top of the more than $4.7 billion of payments paid early to Australian defence industry since 23 March,” Minister Reynolds said.
“The timely funding of Defence estate projects are important for the sector and the Australian economy,” Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price said. “This proactive advice to defence industry allows our partners to plan for upcoming works that are scheduled for release on AusTender.”
The announcement pointed to further information available on the Defence Estate Quality Management System (DEQMS) website and alerts delivered through adjusted existing AusTender notices. The website contains a Defence Estate Works Program Update for scheduled procurement activities between May and December 2020. It is dated to 14 April, prior to the ministerial announcement.
ADM has cross-checked that schedule against AusTender notices and found that just one program of the 91 scheduled for April and May – a Heritage Management Plan consultancy review – has been awarded. The contract value for that review is $218,215, which represents less than one per cent of the total value scheduled to be released to AusTender in April and May (between roughly $123 million and $351 million). A further nine programs have been released to AusTender but not awarded, all one month behind schedule, and one had a limited release.
A Defence spokesperson told ADM that ‘over 20 packages’ have been released, including those awarded through limited tender under the Indigenous Procurement Policy. These are listed on the Indigenous Procurement website, which Defence says accounts for at least nine work packages in addition to the 11 found on AusTender.
At the time of writing, the remaining 71 programs scheduled to be released over the last two months do not appear to be on the market.
If the remaining programs have not yet been released as planned, this could be seen as a failure to provide timely funding of Defence estate projects to sustain the defence industry pipeline through a pandemic-induced economic downturn.
“The Estate Works forward release program identified more than 300 work packages totalling more than $870 million for release from April to December 2020,” the Defence spokesperson said to ADM. “Defence has been focused on releasing more immediate works to support local industry and small to medium enterprise during the COVID pandemic.”
According to the spokesperson, the program remains on track.
“The next two weeks will see the release of a further 30 and we remain on track to release the remainder by the end of the year,” the spokesperson said.