Assuring Project Delivery in the 'Outback by the Sea' - A Carpentaria Case Study

Written by Mark Crawley, CEO Carpentaria Shire Council

Assuring Project Delivery in the 'Outback by the Sea' - A Carpentaria Case Study 

Carpentaria Shire Council is a remote council with limited resources and a few hundred kilometres of coastline on the Queensland West Coast, where sunsets are amazing and often photographed and listed on social media.

The delivery of infrastructure and other assets to maintain and deliver assets that support community expectation and agreed levels of service is a core function of council. It is a major cost, presents significant risk and is often accompanied by various challenges. For Carpentaria, like all councils, governance, audit and risk management are key management areas. 

With this in mind, we have also seen, and continue to see, a slew of funding available right now for new and renewal infrastructure projects across the state of Queensland, and more broadly Australia. Couple this with a drain on skilled workers to other sectors, local governments are taking on more projects and as a result the challenges and risks associated with project delivery are increasing. Stress on management frameworks and human resources is certainly compounded. 

As it was, council had a lot of projects that were in people’s heads, written on scraps of paper in the bottom draw and some were even well recorded, albeit not all in the one place.

An in-house process commenced with the aim of getting all of these into one specific location on a spreadsheet and started to build out this spreadsheet with project ownership, planning horizons, categorisation, and potential funding sources. Projects were categorised into planning, strategy, and infrastructure. A current status was also assigned, in accordance with the QTC Project Decision Framework – Concept, Pre-Feasibility, Feasibility, Planning and Construction, which assisted in further pursuing those projects close to being ready for grant funding and putting forward for consideration.

“I still struggle to understand the Government's thought process around doing away with the MIPP funding, this funding was moving Councils into the right space in relation to funding for Strategy, then funding for Business Case development - and then you are ready for making applications for larger funding rounds with sufficient planning and cost estimates to ensure you're not left short when you get the project funded.”

We then partnered with the team at Peak Services to take our simple spreadsheet to the next level to develop a Project Assurance Matrix. The focus to assign additional criteria such as risk and further prioritisation qualifications. A project assurance mechanism embedded into project portfolio delivery is one way of supporting the management of enterprise-wide risk and the success of funded project delivery and operation.

Council wanted to be best placed to identify and align projects already on the books with funding opportunities. This was to ensure funding was not being chased just because it became available, rather a strategic approach was implemented, and most funding requests were for upgrades and renewals rather than all new (all new just adds to your depreciation expense, something that is now way above our employee cost).

“I am always conscience of the five p’s – prior planning prevents poor performance, and any work done to best position the Council to take advantage of funding opportunities through having priority projects ready for investment is a good thing.”

We need to be better project managers in local government and deliver on the funding as and when it becomes available, adopting a professional approach to doing business and delivering for our communities.

You may recall an article written in Peak's newsletter in early 2021 titled: Enterprise risk management and human resources in local government, where Glen Beckett, General Manager Assist, LGAQ stated that

“... the level of oversight of management at an elected member level should be commensurate with the size of the works program.  Doubling the capital works volume of last year? Prudent to also ramp up the corporate reporting and oversight.”

A project assurance review and a maintained project ‘key data’ matrix can assist support officer management of projects, enable project data to be transparent and improve elected member oversight. This enables officers to have increased awareness of the whole of life costs of an asset. Rather than this be a ‘new process’ distracting from business as usual it is a slim layer of oversight that contains key snippets of project information updated as required and therefore it is not laborious or time consuming.

“Having tools that assist with that process is of great importance and I am pleased at how far we have come in such a short time, and we will continue to better plan to provide improved delivery.”

“Developing the Project Assurance Matrix (PAM) required an understanding of corporate governance, enterprise-wide risk, numerous local government specific requirements and Council's own needs. We drew on bespoke products we have developed over many years and applied properties of these products to deliver the outcomes council needed.  We look forward to seeing benefits realised from PAM integration into council's decision making process for many years to come." - Brian Jackson, Director Consulting Services, Peak Services

For information on the service provided by Peak Services supporting council to greatly improve our project delivery framework, see below.

Mark Crawley is the Chief Executive Officer of the Carpentaria Shire Council located in the North West Queensland and covers an area of 64,373 sq kms. It’s a great place to work, live and play, a position he has held now for almost 3 years.

He has been working in local government for 38 years spending most of his career in rural Queensland and for the past 21 years held the position as CEO at Barcaldine, Nebo, Isaac, Charters Towers and now Carpentaria Shire.

Being a former National President of Local Government Professionals Australia and former State President of Local Government Managers Australia, Mark enjoys the work that is being done on behalf of local government practitioners.

Mark’s current passion is to see that local government is recognised as a genuine level of government by the other levels of Government. A recent study undertaken by ACELG – “Why Local Government Matters” highlights the fact that the community holds local government in very high regard, yet the State and Federal Governments do not. Why? But surely this can be corrected.

Project Assurance - Improved governance, leadership, audit outcomes and risk management

Peak’s Project Assurance Review provides a local government specific method to deliver requisite and improved governance, leadership, audit outcomes, and risk management of projects. By design, it is light in application but also powerful – offering opportunity for improved forecasting, oversight and transparency. 

Project assurance and governance is a critical element of any project since the accountabilities and responsibilities associated with an organisation’s business as usual activities, are laid down in their organisational governance arrangements. 

The Project Assurance Review service assists councils to ensure projects remain on track, within acceptable tolerances, and that projects align with stakeholder expectations. Conformance of project delivery within agreed cost, risk, scope and program tolerances is better achieved when using a review service? It provides for improved accountability and rigour with key decision points and appropriate governance and approval structures. This will help unlock the potential of your resources, including management and allocation of resources more prudently and efficiently. 

The aims of the service include:

• to simplify the process, specific and scalable to local government, 
• empower organisations to adopt a governance and decision-making process for all projects, 
• provide a framework and tool to guide organisations through project delivery and into operation, and
• integrate improved enterprise-wide governance, audit and risk management.

The service assists to define the assurance activities and related reviews to be undertaken during the life of the project, to help manage risk and improve delivery confidence. It is used to plan reviews/health checks and the selection of relevant additional management and controls applicable to the investment/project (complexity).

The Project Assurance Review, and periodic updates of the associated Project Matrix, serves as a guide throughout the life of the project to assist responding to changes in the project and/or the organisations attendance to the project. It also identifies the various roles and responsibilities associated with the assurance activities applicable to this project. 

Peak Services understands local government and the organisational risks that are inherent in this sector and have experienced capability on hand that can support local governments to focus effectively on and manage enterprise risk and deliver what you said you will deliver.

Contact Brian Jackson, Director Consulting Services bjackson@wearepeak.com.au or phone (07) 3000 2148