[Peetwo]

Plug pulled on OneSKY trough fund -  



Fair comments Gobbles...  

However playing devil's advocate, the ANAO 2nd OneSKY audit was not scoped to discover where all the skeletons were buried, nor was ANAO tasked to follow the money trail to the Caymans:

The objective of this audit was to assess whether the OneSKY tender was conducted so as to provide value with public resources and achieve required timeframes for the effective replacement of the existing air traffic management platforms.

  
In fact after reading it a second time, I now believe this report has effectively signed the death knell of the whole OneSKY project:

Areas examined

The ANAO examined whether the tender process resulted in the transparent selection of a successful tender that provided the best whole-of-life value for money solution at an acceptable level of cost, technical and schedule risk, consistent with the RFT.

Conclusion

Tender evaluation proceeded through the planned phases, with competitive pressure maintained until late in the process. The records of the evaluation process evidence that the successful tender was assessed to be better than the other remaining candidates from a technical and schedule risk perspective. It is not clearly evident that the successful tender offered the best value for money. This is because adjustments made to tendered prices when evaluating tenders against the cost criterion were not conducted in a robust and transparent manner. Those adjustments meant that the tenderer that submitted the highest acquisition and support prices was assessed to offer the lowest cost solution. It is also not clearly evident that the successful tender is affordable in the context of the funding available to Airservices and Defence.

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&..also under "Tender Outcomes":


...15. An inadequate approach to summarising the evaluation of tenders was employed. Specifically, the approach of ranking each tender against the criteria did not provide a suitable means of identifying the extent to which one tenderer had been assessed as better, or worse, than other respondents, or how well each tenderer had been assessed as meeting the relevant criterion aspect.

16. The evaluation of tendered prices against the cost criterion was not conducted in a robust and transparent manner. There was not a clear line of sight across the phases of the evaluation and the work of the Tender Evaluation Working Groups and the Tender Evaluation Committee (TEC) in relation to the adjustments made by the TEC to tendered prices for evaluation purposes. Of particular significance was the lack of adequate records explaining the TEC adjustments. Those adjustments suggested that the successful tenderer offered the lowest cost solution when the acquisition and support prices it submitted were actually considerably higher than those of the other tenderers.

17. The records of tender evaluation activities and the outcomes did not demonstrate that sufficient attention had been given to whether the tendered acquisition and support costs were affordable for either Airservices or Defence...

My OneSKY (Harfwit) death knell hypothesis would seem to be supported by the headline and OBS in the Oz today:

Air traffic plan ‘too dear’
12:00amSAM BUCKINGHAM-JONES

A billion-dollar project to combine the civil and military air-traffic-control systems may be too costly.

A billion-dollar project to combine the country’s civil and military air traffic control systems may be too expensive, the government’s audit agency says.

Despite being flagged in a ­national aviation white paper almost a decade ago, the OneSKY Australia program, which would see the Department of Defence and Airservices Australia’s aviation schedules controlled by a single system, has been bogged down by extensive delays.

A report by the Australian Nat­ional Audit Office into the tender process for the system, the bulk of which was awarded to Thales Australia in early 2015, found there were “significant delays”, tenders were not summarised well and evaluation of the tenders was not open and transparent. Thales was the second most expensive tender option, well above the cost offered by competitors Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

“It is not clearly evident that the successful tender offered the best value for money,” the audit office found. “It is also not clearly evident that the successful tender is affordable in the context of the funding available to Airservices and Defence.”

Thales has provided the civil air-traffic system since the late 1990s, but the contract was due to expire in 2015.

The price of the new air-traffic system is estimated at between $900 million and $1 billion, including a 35 per cent “harmonisation” cost for Airservices and Defence to integrate their information.

Although initially it was agreed the two bodies would share costs equally, that is in doubt, as Defence has said it will not pay more than $255m.

“The cost allocation between Defence and Airservices has not been settled. The cost allocation of 50-50 was an initial allocation,” Defence told the ANAO last month, according to the report.

The new joint system was predicted to begin next financial year, but the system’s contract is not due to be signed until later this year. Airservices has been in negotiations with Thales since September 2014 and has spent $75m with Thales since July 2015.

“Contracts are unlikely to be signed prior to mid-2017, at least 40 months after tender evaluation commenced,” the audit ­office wrote.

Although critical of some parts, the report found many aspects of the tender process had been well managed. “The design of the OneSKY tender process was capable of producing a value-for-money outcome,” it said. “A two-stage tender process ... was appropriate for the scale, scope and risk of the joint procurement.” The process also created a “healthy level” of competition.

A spokeswoman for Air­services said the question of the system’s affordability was “dimin­ished” because the body was funded by the airlines. She also said: “As Airservices is still in negotiations with Thales, we are unable to comment on total costs and how they will be shared with Defence.”

The Airservices website says OneSKY will be “the most advanced and integrated air-traffic-control system in the world”, with 200 consoles around the country and operational by 2021.

"..The new joint system was predicted to begin next financial year, but the system’s contract is not due to be signed until later this year. Airservices has been in negotiations with Thales since September 2014 and has spent $75m with Thales since July 2015..."

Just a reminder on who was the ASA Executive Manager that had a fundamental part to play in the OneSKY tender process and also had the oversight of the spending of that $75million (Note the dates)...

Executive General Manager, Future Service Delivery

Airservices Australia
July 2013 – August 2015 (2 years 2 months)

In this senior executive role I had the accountability for the delivery of Airservices’ next generation services and harmonised Australian Air Traffic Management system with the Department of Defence.

As a key member of the Airservices Executive Team, I am enabling the delivery of a world leading harmonised national Air Traffic Management system to ensure, through a holistic transformation program, Australian aviation remains at the forefront of technologically advanced air traffic management services.

This role also has the responsibility of the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the purposes of managing the portfolio and program complexity associated with delivery of the new Air Traffic Management system, and the associated benefits and services.

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&..

Acting Chief Executive Officer

Airservices Australia

August 2015 – March 2016 (8 months)Canberra, Australia

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&..

Chief Executive Officer

Airservices Australia

March 2016 – Present (1 year 2 months)Canberra, Australia

In this role I am accountable for the overall management and performance of Airservices Australia.

Airservices is a government owned organisation providing safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible services to the aviation industry. We manage air traffic operations for over 90 million passengers on more than four million flights every year.

With more than 4000 staff, Airservices provides the aviation industry and the community with aeronautical data, telecommunications, navigation services and aviation rescue fire fighting services.

   
MTF? - Definitely I would say..P2

Ps Again look at the video, from about 30 secs check the body language from M&M, to Senator Nash, to ASA CFO Paul Logan: