DBCDE planned for NBN RFP failure

Renai LeMay
Wednesday, 03 February 2010 22:55

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) had canvassed options to deal with the potential failure of the first, $4.7 billion National Broadband Network plan as early as August 2008, the government auditor has found.

The Federal Government Auditor-General revealed the information in a report released this afternoon (PDF) into the first NBN request for proposals process, which was terminated in April 2009 and replaced with the Federal Government's $43 billion plan to create its own NBN company.

The initial RFP process had attracted a number of bids from the likes of Optus, Axia Netmedia, Acacia and the Tasmanian Government. Telstra was kicked out of the process for failing to meet the small business requirement of the process.

'As the RFP open period progressed, it became increasingly obvious to the department that the likelihood of a successful outcome was reducing,' the auditor's report states.

DBCDE had initially believed the RFP process might need some form of second stage to deal with the complex nature of the process.

However, by August 2008 '” just nine months after the Rudd Government took office '” DBCDE had started to canvass options for progressing its NBN policy 'within, subsequent to, or outside of the RFP process'.