What do Corrections and Peter Jackson have in common? On the face of it nothing. Jackson makes films and Corrections manages offenders. One thing we share is that we have both managed some very large and difficult projects.
Jackson has made history by using leading-edge technology to simultaneously complete three major films - the blockbuster Lord of the Rings trilogy. Next year, Corrections will also finish one of New Zealand’s largest-ever construction projects with the opening of the last two of the four regional prisons. In Lord of the Rings style, these prisons have been built simultaneously and reflect the best international practice, particularly in their focus on rehabilitating prisoners.
This project has been challenging, the $890 million price tag speaks to that, and this was recognised in the project review undertaken for the State Services Commission by PricewaterhouseCoopers. To quote the State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble: “Designing and constructing modern prisons is a very complex process. The building of a modern prison is equivalent to building a small town. For example, Spring Hill on a daily basis will service more than 1,000 people.”
If anything, that understates the challenge. Projects of this scale are demanding for most organisations, particularly when construction is not their core business. In this case, the enhanced focus on rehabilitation requires prisons that are radically different from anything we have built before, and construction has taken place during a period of considerable policy and legislative change.
“These changes led to the Department, and its management team, being under extreme pressure to house increasing numbers of offenders in the prison system. It is impressive that the Department delivered on such a tight timetable, but it came at a cost,” Mark Prebble said.
With the project expanding by an extra 600 beds, it is little surprise that costs rose, and it is to the credit of the project team that all prisons will open on time and Northland and Auckland Women’s have done so to budget.
This is fully accepted in the State Services Commission review which found that 57 percent of the $140.8 million rise in the estimated cost for Otago Region Corrections Facility and Spring Hill was due to tight labour and rising commodity prices in an overheated construction market.
We can take satisfaction that the review found that little of the additional cost could have been avoided, particularly given the pressure to get the job done.
It also endorsed the use of the Collaborative Working Arrangement (CWA), around which there has been a certain amount of ill-informed and mischievous comment, to manage the construction.
Inevitably, there were things that could have been done better. The review notes that the project steering group struggled with the scale of their undertaking in the early days, despite a membership that included external advisors and a Treasury official. It confirms that project governance improved as it went along and there is little to suggest the final outcome, both in cost and facilities, should have been any different.
However, we must acknowledge that we should have kept our previous Minister better informed on the indicative nature of cost estimations during the 2005 Budget process.
With the benefit of hindsight, there are things we would do differently if we had to embark on a project of this scale again. Hopefully, we won’t have to.
Barry Matthews
Chief Executive
A message of farewell to the Maori Queen, Te Atairangikaahu, from Barry Matthews on behalf of the Department of Corrections
He Poroporoake
Kua hinga he Totara
Ki te Arikinui te Atairangikaahu te mokopuna o te motu takoto
mai i to moengaroa
He mihi aroha tenei kia koe kua wehea atu
Kua maringi nga roimata, kua heke te hupe, kua puta nga mihi
poroporoake mou
No reira e te Ariki moe mai i roto i nga manaakitanga o te Kaihanga
nana nei nga mea katoa
Paimarire
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ISSN 1178-8453