BER procurement inquiry up for debate

26 Oct 2010

Source:  The Australian
The Australian Parliament will debate, and possibly vote on, a proposal for a judicial inquiry into the controversial schools stimulus program. The Coalition introduced a bill last week to dissolve the current taskforce investigating the implementation of the government's $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution scheme in favour of a full legal inquest.

If established, the BER commission would have the power to summon witnesses and subpoena documents, which the BER Implementation Taskforce -- led by businessman Brad Orgill -- and previous parliamentary inquiries have not had.
Opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne yesterday said the inquiry would primarily aim to evaluate whether or not the government had obtained value for money.

"There have been reams of evidence and testimony in the media and to various other inquiries suggesting widespread rorts, price gouging, collusion, state skimming and waste," Mr Pyne said. "Surely if the Prime Minister has nothing to hide in her handling of the rollout of this program, then she has nothing to fear from a judicial inquiry."

Read more here