Government to impose tighter scrutiny to defence procurement

The Federal Government has imposed a fresh wave of accountability reforms to the Department of Defence which will see tighter scrutiny on projects and is estimated at saving $300 million.

There will be more rigorous analysis of smaller projects and tailor-made defence solutions under the reforms. 

Projects worth between $8 and $20 million will be subject to a ‘two-pass’ approval process that now applies to bigger projects, while new early warning systems will identify problems before major cost blowouts.

“We now need to bring internal rigour to ensure, particularly so far as projects are concerned, that we get good value for money,” Defence Minister Stephen Smith said.

“There is a sorry history of defence projects in the past where such rigour has not been applied.”

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