Table 1 provides a summary of the 15 selected projects and our assessment of their status against their current approved cost budgets (inclusive of operating and capital expenditure) and completion dates. Current approved budgets are those approved by Cabinet, approved dates are those approved by the project steering committees and reported to Cabinet.

Table 2 is the risk matrix we used to assess cost and time status of projects and to form our overall assessment.

Six projects are at various stages of planning

Ideally, projects will have a sound business case developed prior to funding approval. Where this is not the case, we expected business cases to be reasonably well advanced for projects that have had funding approved for more than a year.

Two projects, the Main Jetty and the South Thomson Bay Development at Rottnest Island have had site investigations and assessments done to inform business case development. These projects have had funding approved for over a year. The original 2019-20 budget funding for these projects was $5.65 million and $10 million respectively. This was reduced to $4 million and $9.15 million respectively in the December 2019 mid-year review with funding reallocated to the Fuel Jetty at Rottnest Island, currently in the delivery phase.

Two projects, Casuarina Prison and Greenough Regional Prison are in the latter stages of planning.

• The Casuarina Prison budget has been reduced by $1.1 million and approved delivery extended by 12 months from December 2022 to December 2023.
• For Greenough Regional Prison a budget of $12.35 million was approved in the 2019-20 budget papers. The project is behind schedule and is not expected to be completed until August 2021.

Two Tonkin Highway corridor upgrade projects are progressing against their original approved budgets and timing. Work is expected to start in 2022.

Four projects are in procurement phase

Three of the projects, John Forrest Secondary College and Geraldton and Joondalup Health Campuses have awarded contracts to commence preliminary works. Further, tender processes are underway for the construction contract for John Forrest Secondary College, and detailed planning and design for major construction works at Geraldton and Joondalup Health Campuses is continuing prior to tendering and procurement.

Tender processes are underway for the construction contract for the Queen Victoria Street – Swan River Crossing.

Five projects are in delivery phase

Metronet – Forrestfield-Airport Link and the New State Museum are within their revised approved funding. However, both have experienced time delays of over a year:

• Delays in tunnelling for the Metronet project that impacted timing for the rest of the project have been well publicised. Any further delays will place revised cost and time estimates at risk.
• The New State Museum experienced delays in planning approvals at commencement and there remains some cost risk until fit out is complete.

The first stage of Bob Hawke College was completed on time and within the approved revised budget, but at a cost of over $4 million more than originally budgeted.

A contract was awarded in June 2020 for construction of the Tonkin Highway Gap – Collier Road to Stanton Road project. Work is expected to start in October 2020 and be completed by September 2023. The project is within original cost and time estimates.

Rottnest Island’s Fuel Jetty has commenced construction. It is within its approved revised budget and on time to be completed by November 2020.

Regular monitoring and internal reporting processes are in place for all the projects

We found regular monitoring and internal reporting of project status for all of the projects. At the time of our review, project teams were reporting regularly to project steering committees and/or entity management. In addition, progress for many of the projects is regularly reported to Cabinet. Reports typically include progress against key milestones as well as cost and time budgets. Key variances and associated risks were also explained in most of the reports. Entities were able to provide supporting evidence for a sample of progress reports we reviewed.

The level of project oversight varied depending on the value and complexity of the projects. For example:

• the relatively lower value Rottnest Island projects are managed by an internal project team and reported on a regular basis to the executive
• projects such as the New State Museum and the Metronet – Forrestfield-Airport Link have multi-entity steering committees, including representatives from the Departments of Finance and Treasury.

For 11 of the 15 projects we selected, Finance prepares a fortnightly status report to Cabinet. Table 3 summarises the project oversight for each of the selected projects.