Broadband consultants to get over $11 million

The consultants that are currently advising the Federal Government on the national broadband network have been given a budget of more than $11 million.

So far consulting firms have been paid $4 million and to retain their services over the net five months they have been allocated a further $7.7 million, although no announcement has been made so far as to which company will be building one of the governments most ambitious project yet.

With charges of $4 million made to the government for its legal advice, the recipient of the largest monetary figure has been Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

Nick Minchin, the Opposition’s communications spokesman said “Before a hole has been dug or a network builder chosen, we learn the only big winners to date from the national broadband network have been the lawyers and consultants.

This tender process has been mismanaged from the beginning. We have already seen several delays and the longer this drags out the more these costs are going to mount. Thus far, the Rudd Government has burnt up millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on admin, consultancy and legal costs and there is no actual start date in sight.”

The Senate committee process was used by the government to supply the opposition with the cost of the consultants’ fees. An independent panel that gave a rating of the competing bids sent a report to Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Communications last week.

A decision as to which company will get the contract to provide 98 percent of Australia with a high-speed broadband internet service is expected from the Federal cabinet soon. With a contribution of $4.7 billion from the Government the entire project is expected to cost as much as $10 billion.

The failure of Telstra to lodge a complete bid last year, which led to it being excluded from the bid process, has already caused controversy in the project, although a return of Telstra to the bidding is still a possibility. The telco has already argued that it is the company that has the capability to build a network that will be truly national. The release of the independent panels report to the Government has been called for by the Opposition.