Victorian Parliamentary Committee calls for more contract disclosure

The Victorian Parliamentary Public Accounts and Estimates Committee has issued its report on Private Investment in Public Infrastructure. The report highlights a number of concerns including the fact that

"the biggest barrier to determining the benefits or otherwise of Public Private Sector Partnerships has been the lack of public information about these projects, although marginal improvements have been made".

See the full Report here

The Committee's twenty recommendations include publication of all contracts on the web, subject to any information the private sector partner can demonstrate deserves confidentiality, and the inclusion of information about comparisons of project costs for public and private sector financing.

It made big news in The Age under the heading "Secret deals with private sector under fire".

Similar recommendations were made by the NSW Parliamentary Committee on the Cross City Tunnel and accepted in principle by the Government.