School Building program exonerated

The Building the Education Revolution (BER) Taskforce, headed by banker Brad Orgill, has today released its interim report into the program.

In the past three months the taskforce has visited 110 schools in five states.

The report finds that out of the 254 complaints investigated, about half related to value for money.

The report says that the majority of complaints raise very valid concerns about value for money and the involvement of the school community in decision making.

"In part these issues reflect the focus on speed of implementation of projects and a necessary trade-off of consultation time and design customisation versus the stimulus objectives," it says.

Mr Orgill has made 14 recommendations, six of which are for immediate action.

Among those six, the report says that any projects not yet committed to should be administered under each education authority's pre-BER "business as usual" guidelines.

It also says that the Taskforce is not satisfied with how authorities measured value for money and has called for a forum of education authorities to develop more consistent definitions.

However, the reports also finds that the program is meeting its overall objective.

"Notwithstanding the validity of issues raised in the complaints, our overall observation is that this Australia-wide program is delivering much needed infrastructure to school communities," it said.