Capital Development Guidelines

Key stakeholders in the capital investment process include the Division, Region, Agency and Capital Management Branch. The responsibility for each of these groups is as follows:

• Divisions:
  • Development of policies and corporate planning for the delivery of services.
  • Provision of a strategic approach to capital investments across the State, eg ranking of recurrent and capital priorities within the program.
• Regions:
  • Delivery of service programs within their geographic areas.
  • Provision of information about the particular needs of the area and sensitivity to local issues.
  • Implementation of program priority projects, asset management and sign off on surplus assets.
• Agency:
  • Day-to-day carriage of the project.
  • CEO to be involved and responsibility for the project to be allocated to a specific person.
  • When acting as the principal to a contract the Agency has legal and financial responsibilities including the making of payments.
  • Ensuring the project complies with recurrent funding objectives for operation and maintenance.
  • Ensuring consultation with key sectors, e.g. monitoring and control of input from user groups, consultation with facility managers as well as operational and line managers.
• Capital Management Branch:
  • Provision of technical advice based on expertise in the planning, design and construction of buildings.
  • Focus on the processes, organisation and risk management processes needed to manage a capital works project.
  • Ensuring the Department achieves value for money.
  • Responsible for approvals (e.g. feasibility, design and new works) and liaison with other Government Departments, for example, Treasury and Finance.

Project Control Group

A Project Control Group (PCG) is formed when Ministerial approval is given for the project to be included on the Design List and for it to be progressed to Master Plan and Feasibility Study.

The PCG is comprised of representatives of the Agency, Division, Region (as required) and Capital Management Branch. Its role is to:

• Ensure the project is fit for purpose.
• Monitor progress of a capital project.
• Ensure the project remains within the approved scope, budget and time parameters.

The PCG should meet monthly and focus on strategic decisions. It has delegated authority to make recommendations and is required to:

• Give direction to Principal Consultant.
• Obtain required approvals.
• Establish and implement authorisation of payments.
• Decide between competing requirements and priorities.

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Consultants

Consultants are responsible to the Project Control Group to provide specialist expertise and advice in management, planning, design and construction.

In most projects the Principal Consultant will be the architect. The Principal Consultant is responsible for leadership of the consultant team.  For large or complex projects, a Project Manager or Director will be responsible for leadership of the consortia of consultants and sub-consultants.

Consultants Generally Required for Project Costing More than $5 Million

* Other specialists may be required depending on the type of project, for example:

• Building Surveyor
• Kitchen Consultant
• Industrial Hygienist
• Energy Engineer Environmental / Energy Specialist
• Geo-Technical Engineer
• Town Planner
• Construction Manager
• Probity Auditor
• Acoustic Engineer.

Contractors

Contractors are responsible to the Principal and are required to carry out works in accordance with the contract. However, contractors are to be directed by the Principal’s representative (or Superintendent), which will normally be the Project Manager or Principal Consultant.

Medium Projects Organisational Relationships

User Groups

User groups represent staff that will be responsible for operation of the facility and provide specialist expertise and advice to the PCG on specific facility requirements. User groups should include those responsible for the functional operation and service delivery, maintenance of building systems and services, building fabric, fitouts, cleaning and environmental services. User group involvement should be sought at the commencement of the briefing stage and is likely to continue through to the documentation stage. The PCG may or may not accept advice provided by user groups.

The role of a user group is to:

• Assist in identifying capital issues that have recurrent/operational benefits and trade-offs
• Provide facility management input into the design and documentation process.

User groups should be encouraged to think about better ways of delivering the services proposed. The input from the user group provides an opportunity for re-engineering the process of service delivery.