11. Defence complies with the requirements of the Public Works Committee Act 1969, and largely complies with the requirements of the Committee's Manual, in referring projects to the Committee for notification and review prior to entering into financial commitments for the relevant public works. The ANAO found that Defence had referred all 13 of the building works projects examined in the audit to the Committee for Parliamentary approval before the department committed money to construction. In addition, all 13 projects demonstrated adherence to the legislative requirements, and 11 of the 13 selected projects demonstrated adherence to the Committee's administrative guidelines. The non-adherence to the guidelines for two projects relates to the requirement to advise the Committee of any significant changes to design, scope and related matters (see Table 1).
12. Defence's ability to manage building works projects successfully is influenced by relatively stable staffing, leading to corporate knowledge being retained, and a mechanism for maintaining in one easy to navigate system, key project management information. Defence has clear and accessible guidelines that reflect the Committee's requirements for the projects the department manages using direct procurement. However, Defence does not currently have available equally comprehensive policy and procedural information to guide project officers in developing and delivering PPP projects. The guidance Defence does have available to project officers undertaking PPPs is not maintained on the Infrastructure Management System and does not include information on the Public Works Committee processes, either before or after Parliamentary approval.
13. The ANAO considers there are opportunities for improvements to help Defence prepare for, and follow up on, Committee requirements. These include the use of standard templates when preparing documents for the Committee, more clearly specifying the costs of the project (particularly the inclusion or exclusion of Goods and Services Tax amounts) and in reporting back to the Committee on recommendations made in the Committee's reports.