The West Gate Tunnel is an unusual megaproject in that it was a market-led proposal. According to advice from the Department of Treasury and Finance to the Government in December 2017,39 the usual tender process was bypassed, and a contract signed with Transurban, on the grounds that the company's offer was 'unique'.
The uniqueness related solely to Transurban's ability to get funding for the project via increased and/or extended tolls on its existing City Link concession. An Auditor-General's report quite reasonably questioned whether funding should have been considered the defining 'unique' characteristic to exclude a competitive procurement process, since the community will pay for the project whichever funding source is adopted.40
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39. VAGO (2019a, p. 35).
40. Ibid (p. 36).