Several ACT Policing buildings have been forced to close this year due to maintenance and contamination issues, including a section of the City Police Station. Photo: Albert McKnight.
The Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS) has been called on to develop a cost assurance process for ACT Policing facilities to make decision-making easier when it comes to funding major works and upgrades.
The ACT’s Acting Auditor-General Brett Stanton released the Management and oversight of ACT Policing services report detailing that while most processes between JACS and ACT Policing (ACTP) were effective when it came to identification and costing of policing services, there was a gap when it came to identifying the costs associated with facilities services.
“JACS currently provides minimal assurance over ACT Policing’s facilities costs, relying on the consistency of funding requests as an assurance mechanism,” the report noted.
“This increases the risk that the Territory’s payments are incorrect for facilities costs.”
The purchase agreement between the AFP and ACT Government for ACTP’s services specifically states that the Territory is responsible for providing “appropriate facilities and associated infrastructure to enable the provision of policing services”.
This includes funding provisions for maintenance costs but not capital investment funding for major works.
Instead, major works funding will be considered during the ACT Budget process.
Funding can also be accessed through the Territory’s Better Infrastructure Fund. ACTP was allocated $299,000 in 2022-23 to upgrade amenities at City Station and $306,000 in 2023-24 for solar and hot water services upgrades at Woden Police Station.
ACTP occupies 11 sites across Canberra. The Territory owns seven of these – six police stations and the Traffic Operations Centre – while three sites are leased by the AFP and one by the ACT Government.
A 2018 independent infrastructure condition audit identified more than $26 million across 100 defect projects for ACT Government ACTP sites.
This led to $1.2 million in the 2022-23 ACT Budget for infrastructure asset upgrades.
An October 2023 analysis of repairs and maintenance showed almost half of the infrastructure at ACT Government ACTP sites was rated ‘below average’ or ‘average’, and required “immediate or imminent renewal or replacement” to the tune of $7.5 million.
Commercial property management company JLL Australia was engaged in 2021 to develop a 20-year Master Accommodation Plan, and JACS began work to develop a Strategic Asset Management Plan in 2023. But that’s not expected to be off the ground “before 2024-25”, with no timeframe provided for the report.
The report comes at a time when ACTP infrastructure has been in the spotlight.
ACTP’s previous Chief Officer had long been critical about the time taken to get new policing infrastructure off the ground, and both the City Police Station and Gungahlin Joint Emergency Services Centre (JESC) had to be shut earlier this year due to weather damage and contamination issues, respectively.
Both are fully operational again after $1.5 million to upgrade and fix issues at City Police Station.
Improvements are continuing at the JESC, with $3.5 million in works scheduled for completion in October.
There’s long been talk about building a headquarters for emergency services and police somewhere in central Canberra.
The government will now consider the Acting Auditor-General’s recommendations in the report.
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