Review of issues related to the acquisition and management of container accommodation in the Northern Territory and the management of ACMS on prescribed communities 

• The scale of the intervention;
• The timeframes demanded by government without apparently much appreciation of the issues involved;
• The social issues involved; and
• The organisational structure effectively imposed by government.

A Project Plan was established for the NTER.  It has been updated and extended a number of times with the most recent version being promulgated in January 2008 after consultation.  Within the Project Plan a section dealt specifically with risk management.  The unavailability of suitable on ground accommodation for CEBs and GBMs was identified as a high risk issue.  The monitoring and review strategies required the maintenance of an issues register and the briefing of relevant senior managers.  In my opinion, the Plan, assuming they were aware of it, should have raised the awareness of the officers dealing with accommodation issues to the need to treat seriously any issues which raised questions about the continued availability of 'on ground accommodation'.  The handling of the problems does not indicate that level of awareness.

In relation to the provision of the container accommodation I was advised that no risk assessment had been undertaken.  In the course of this review however I became aware that a comprehensive Staff Accommodation Plan (SAP) had in fact been prepared in August 2007.  That SAP included a risk assessment methodology and an appropriately detailed risk management strategy.  Despite being signed off by appropriate officers, I have been unable to establish that the SAP was used effectively throughout the planning for and implementation of the 'Top End' accommodation project and every indication suggests that it was not.  Certainly the quality inspections as envisaged in the SAP were not carried out. Had the SAP methodology been used I believe many of the problems, other than the fumes issue, could have been avoided or at least ameliorated. 

I understand current thinking within the Department may be to not use the SAP for future accommodation projects.  In my view the SAP represents an effective project management tool which builds on the Departments own methodology, enhanced by some elements borrowed from Prince2.  Given the not inconsiderable investment in developing the SAP I recommend that any decision not to use it on accommodation projects be reviewed.