Project Management Tradition

Project management tradition...

ADELAIDE, August 28, 1993. Prime minister Paul Keating launches the first Collins-class submarine. As the gleaming vessel hits the water, Australia's technological prowess glistens as brightly as its military strength. Led by the ABC, the media hails the event as a triumph.

But it is a hoax. The steel plates are timber painted black. The engine has never been tested in salt water. The pipe fabrication is not finished. Nor is the design of the vessel. And the combat system doesn't work. Far from intimidating our enemies, the greatest threat the submarine poses is to Australia's taxpayers.

And...

Yet if such failures can occur and persist, it is also because accountability is so weak. Nor is the NBN an isolated case in that respect. In his recent review of the events which led to the early decommissioning of HMAS Manoora and the extended unavailability of HMAS Kanimbla, Defence Audit and Risk Committee chairman Paul Rizzo concluded that "accountability, authority and responsibility was misaligned, fragmented or simply misunderstood".

As for Collins, the Coles review of the submarines' sustainment could not identify a clear locus of responsibility for the key decisions that had been taken.

And who has been held to account for pink batts and for school halls? No one.

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