More than half of school projects funded by the federal government’s stimulus package could be scaled back or collapse altogether as budgets blow out by millions of dollars.
In NSW, the state education department has confirmed that around half of the 2,418 projects will cost more than the government has allocated to the school.
This leaves schools having to decide whether to reducing or halting their projects, or hold out in the hope that another school’s project has come in under budget and more money can be allocated to them.
The bungle has been blamed on schools being allocated funds based on the number of students, rather than the cost of the project.
Construction has already started on 15 per cent of school projecs in NSW and fully tendered costs have been drawn for around 730.
Shadow minister for education, Adrian Piccoli lamented the Rees government for failing to deliver major infrastructure projects.
“If this mistake is not addressed quickly, over half of the schools in NSW will have to cancel or scale back their BER projects,” Piccoli said.
The “bungle” could see the Building the Education Revolution (BER) programme blow out by millions of dollars, he said.
This comes as the federal opposition is calling on the federal government to force states to publically detail the number of complaints they have received about the school building projects.
While the federal government says it has received fewer than 60 complaints, its records do not include protests made to the states and territories.
The Queensland government says it has received eight complaints, while the NSW state claims to have received no criticisms. The Victorian government refused to comment.
