Conroy ignored AG's advice by accepting Telstra's NBN non-bid

Stuart Corner
Monday, 01 December 2008 10:22

Business IT - Networking

Shadow communications minister Nick Minchin claims that communications minister Stephen Conroy has ignored written advice from the Attorney General that he could only accept Telstra's non-compliant bid for the national broadband network by altering the terms of the RFP.

When Conroy said earlier this year that he would be prepared to accept non-compliant responses to the RFP, the Opposition attempted to 'nail him' claiming that the RFP precluded this.

It sought advice from the Attorney General's department  and the AG's written response was that Conroy could accept and consider non-compliant proposals such as Telstra's if he amended the RFP.

However in question time today, Conroy said that no such amendment had been made. After first trying to duck the question - "As I have repeatedly stated, consideration of proposals against the RFP will be undertaken by the panel of experts," - Conroy said: "Given the process that we have been following, on legal advice and following probity advice, any amendments to the process are required to be notified to all proponents and listed on the department’s website. There are no amendments that have been recently put up [since early clarifications]."

Minchin said: "Senator Conroy has ignored the advice of the independent umpire and in the absence of any clear amendment regarding compliance, has opened up this already shambolic process to the very real prospect of legal challenge. I am certain the Auditor General will be following this extremely closely and Senator Conroy’s admission today highlights that this deeply flawed tender process is on the brink of collapse.”

He noted that, in his earlier advice, the Auditor General had stated: “Given the materiality of the NBN program, I will include the RFP process of the NBN program as a potential audit topic in the ANAO's (Australian National Audit Office) Planned Audit Work Program 2008-09."