Independent Review

Support Local. The concept of supporting local businesses has been well publicised over the past year in light of recovery efforts made by Australian businesses and governments as a way to stimulate the Australian economy back to its pre-pandemic successes.

DCWC is extremely pleased to announce several significant promotions in our national team as of July 1st. Congratulations to all on your new appointments!

You may have heard the word Kaizen before. It is a Japanese term meaning ‘change for the better’ or, put another way, continuous improvement. And it is something that is critical to success in the construction industry.

2021 Property Council of Australia/Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Awards Finalists have been announced! DCWC is pleased to see some of our clients and project partners receive finalist nominations for their outstanding projects.

DCWC is delighted to have provided project management services for Project 100 at Trinity College, the University of Melbourne, which is shortlisted for the 2021 Victorian Architecture Awards; in the Residential Architecture – Multiple Housing category.

The Construction Students Association (CSA) helps advocate and support Construction students at the University of Melbourne, by providing career and networking events such as their annual Industry Night, which was recently held on May 4th.

Our Sydney team is delighted to now call Symantec House, Home.

The Donald Cant Watts Corke Infrastructure team sponsored the Road Australia Industry Luncheon in Melbourne last Friday. Inviting valued guests alongside the team, the event brought together key voices around Infrastructure and Transports systems in the state.

For many years now, Donald Cant Watts Corke (DCWC) has been an advocator of certainty in high risk and high value projects, particularly in the infrastructure sector. Recently we have found some concerning trends in cost planning and overruns for major infrastructure projects nationally.

The impacts these cost overruns have run deep with consequences. Affecting not only key project stakeholders, but also placing a strain on the relationship between communities and the Government, in its ability to effectively deliver on the future needs of local populations. These trending errors can be easily overcome by abiding by three simple principles in getting project right from the start.

Department of Treasury and Finance Guidelines

Guidelines for preparing business case budgets for major infrastructure projects in states across Australia have been articulately prepared for use by consulting firms, and yet for various reasons, this advice continually gets ignored by construction service consultants. For example, the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) budget estimating guidelines specifically state that there should be a process of design review by appropriately experienced personnel in order to determine that the cost estimate captures all relevant scope, reflects good practice design solutions, construction methodology, constraints and program scheduling etc. Budgets should be reasonably based on professional judgement and experience, and that each project can be achieved through good planning of hard and smart work.

Despite the above we continue to see audited examples of projects where relevant scope has not been captured and where budgets are inadequate. A baseless application of professional judgment through overlooking Government guidelines, that in turn stimulates cost overruns in client projects.

Inappropriate Use of Contingency Allowances

This leads to the second most common error that we see in the preparation of budget estimates; the use of contingency allowances for relevant scope that was missed. Contingency allowances should be derived through the management of both inherent and contingent risk and therefore by definition, are not to be used for missing scope items. 

Contingency allowances are not to be used for missing scope items, but for uncertainty in the cost estimate for quantities rates and construction methodology, and for site specific (contingent) risks bespoke to each individual project.

Inappropriate Use of Historic Data

Another common error that often comes up when reviewing budget estimates for major infrastructure projects is the inappropriate application of historic cost data. Applying outdated unit rates is a mistake in itself. But the problem is compounded when these same rates are incorrectly applied to the wrong construction activity. This error can be easily avoided by following a standard set of Plain Language Questions (PLQs).

Experienced consultants with the appropriate knowledge and understanding of such matters will then be able to answer these questions correctly and apply the historic data to the applicable activities.

There are of course, many factors that contribute to cost certainty but as an organisation, DCWC will continue to advocate that our clients focus heavily on the scope, constructability and operational requirements prior to projects going to the market.

DCWC has eight services dedicated to providing project certainty in all areas of a project's development, including project management (delivery), health advisory, engineering services and infrastructure. Our diverse talent pool that continues to grow with Australia’s leading industry professionals is critical to providing certainty at an integrated level, providing the clearest assurance and confidence with director involvement through every step of project planning and delivery.

International Women’s Day provides us as individuals and as collective organisations and communities, an opportunity to support the ever important efforts towards creating a gender equal world.