Greg Combet, Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science, today welcomed the tabling of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) annual report on the Defence Materiel Organisation’s (DMO) Major Projects Report (MPR) 2008-09.
“This report is a further step forward in fulfilling the Rudd Government’s election commitment to task and resource independently validated reports on DMO's top projects,” Mr Combet said.
“This report provides enhanced transparency of the Government’s investment in these military capabilities on behalf of the Australian tax payer.
“The MPR 2008-09 provides an enhanced level of transparency on the status of its largest acquisition projects (by total budget) in terms of cost, schedule, capability and emerging trends, and reaffirms the Government’s commitment to make itself and the DMO openly transparent and accountable to the Australian public.
“This report demonstrates that the DMO has been very successful at controlling cost within the major defence procurement projects.
“Across 15 major projects, once price, foreign exchange variations and government approved scope increase are accounted for, the net cost increase has been negligible. This performance is well above global trends and international benchmarking.
“In coming years, the DMO will report on a total of 30 of its largest projects. Future MPRs will also objectively reveal emerging trends in the management of DMO’s largest projects, further strengthening the Government’s and the DMO’s accountability to the Australian public,” Mr Combet said.
The DMO MPR 2008-09 contains a total of 15 projects – six more than last year’s report.
The six additional projects are: SEA4000 Ph3 Air Warfare Destroyer; AIR9000 Ph2 Multi-Role Helicopter; AIR5349 Ph1 Bridging Air Combat Capability (Super Hornets); JP2048 Ph4A/B Landing Helicopter Dock; AIR5402 Air-to-Air Refuelling; and AIR5376 Ph3.2 Hornet Structural Refurbishment.
Click here for the full report (280 pages in PDF format) on the ANAO website (ends)
