The National Capital Planning Authority called for tenders for outside cleaning of 5.5 sq km including the Parliamentary Triangle. It is part of a general takeover of the physical maintenance of national land in Canberra by the NCPA, and incidentally marks a growing power and influence of the agency, to the chagrin of ACT authorities.
The NCPA has long been a critic of the standard of maintenance of national assets in Canberra, which to date has been done by ACT Government agencies.
The day-to-day maintenance of national land is funded by the Commonwealth at a cost of $7.2 million a year.
The acting chief executive of the NCPA, Sue Kesteven, said yesterday that the tenders were part of a comprehensive management program for Canberra’s national land. It would bring competition, efficiency and quality vetting to ensure best use of money. The program would be broken into four categories: day-to-day (operational) maintenance; restoration and replacement; life-cycle maintenance to minimise maintenance costs; and new works.
Yesterday’s tenders are for the first of these. Both private and public sector organisations can tender, including the ACT Government, but under new NCPA quality control.
They are for litter, garbage collection, public toilet cleaning, street, carpark, and path cleaning for the Triangle, Commonwealth and Kings Parks, Anzac Parade, Stirling Ridge, Attunga Point, Yarramundi foreshores and Aspen Island.
Ms Kesteven said the public should see cleaner national areas and eventually things in better repair.
When the ACT became self-governing it was thought that it would be efficient to have ACT bodies maintain the national land because they were doing adjacent maintenance anyway. The Commonwealth just gave the ACT $7.2 million a year and said continue what you have been doing. NCPA has argued that that has been unsatisfactory because there had been no proper separate accounting by ACT authorities on what has been spent on national land so the NCPA and before that DASET could not see if it was getting value for money.
The NCPA formally took over responsibility for maintenance from the Department of Arts, Sport and Environment in July last year, but on the understanding it would continue the arrangements with the ACT for some months until the NCPA could get new arrangements in place. These were set in train yesterday.
Last year thee chairman of the NCPA, Joe Skrzynski, attacked the poor maintenance of $2 billion worth of national assets in Canberra. He pointed to shoddy pavements, crumbling statues, poorly lit carparks, leaking pipes and a litany of other defects.
He argued that fixing it up as well as good marketing were essential to getting more Australians to see their national capital.
The NCPA will embark on a program of restoration of roads, paths, embankments, irrigation systems, memorials and other structures because or deterioration over the past 40 years.
Ms Kesteven said the restoration was needed because of the poor state things were in when the NCPA took them over. Investigations usually revealed more work was needed than first thought, a good example was the Carillon.
She said the restoration program would use the $15 million over the next three years pledged by Ros Kelly as part of the Government’s election policy for Canberra.
The NCPA has been carving itself out a more powerful role in the past couple of years. In a couple of steps it has now come fully out of the ministry and department controlled by Mrs Kelly, a situation some people in NCPA had been unhappy with because of her strong territory priorities both as an MP and a Minister.
First it got control of maintenance from the department after arguing successfully that there was no point planning something if you could not execute and maintain it.
The second step came after the last election when the NCPA was moved from the Department of Territories to the Department of Health and Housing, Brian Howe’s department.
That move reflected the NCPA’s positioning of itself as a cities expert, providing Mr Howe with a great deal of advice for his pet baby, the Better Cities Program.
The repositioning and strengthing of the NCPA’s bureaucratic position has not amused some people in ACT administration who would dearly love to have seen it wither so the ACT could get on with whatever it liked without interference on the national level. Publicly, of course, ACT authorities and the NCPA work in a spirit of harmony and cooperation.
The test for the NCPA is whether the process begun yesterday will result in better value for money and a better-looking Canberra.