An inquiry into the issues surrounding the extension of Alderney’s Connaught Care Home has unveiled a “number of shortcomings in the project’s administration and management”.
The island’s government has now been given a number of ‘key learnings’ to work from to ensure future capital projects are better managed.
The inquiry report includes a warning that future capital projects are at risk of also going over budget and time if lessons aren’t learnt from what went wrong with the Connaught Extension.
“It has to be recognised that project delivery involves risk and project governance is
about how that risk is to be managed. The outcome of this project and its consequences, particularly as it affects public monies and disruption to the future plans of the Connaught clearly demonstrate what happens when that risk is not properly
managed“
Connaught Extension Project: A Report into the causes of the delay and overspend
The list of ‘learnings’ from the Connaught extension includes things like appointing an Officer to oversee developments, and preparing project guidance documents in advance.
It’s suggested that a project guidance document or manual would include information on ‘money flow’ and the “processes that must be followed”, as well as things like job descriptions for people involved in capital projects and other templates.
It’s understood that none of this information was written down anywhere when the States of Alderney signed a contract for the extension of the island’s Connaught Care Home.
The inquiry into the issues around the project includes a reference to the “wrong contract form” being used.
Other issues with the Connaught extension arose around decision making processes deep into the project, with the inquiry finding that work was delayed at inappropriate times when construction had already commenced.
“…it was almost inevitable to find that this did not work and has resulted in increased and not reduced costs,” found the inquiry.
The inquiry was commissioned by Alderney’s General Services Committee.
Chair, Iain MacFarlane has said that lessons will be learnt from the mistakes made on this project.
“The report highlights issues with oversight and communication across various responsible bodies and third parties, however we can now be responsible and accountable to learn and move forward from the findings of the inquiry and create a framework that can be applied when the States of Alderney takes on major capital projects.”
He continued: “I would also like to acknowledge the diligent and professional manner in which Martin Thornton has conducted and presented his findings.”
Mr Thornton’s report detailed some of the overspends within the Connaught extension project – including ones which could have been avoided.
Some costs were “significantly impacted” by covid and Brexit, but others shot up because of avoidable delays, he found. These included the parts of the building work in Phase 3.
Phase 1 went £11,319 over budget, while Phase 2 was completed with a £7870 surplus. Costs for Phase 3 however went up and up with overspends going into hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The rising costs had to be approved by the States of Guernsey, which itself raised concerns about the project going over budget.
The inquiry found many of the budgeting problems were “within project planning, project governance and contract management decision making, rather than the problem simply being a major increase in the construction cost arising during the construction period of Phase 3.”
The inquiry found that the contractor had itself raised concerns about some of the issues which added to the project going over budget and time.
The report states multiple times that the contractor was not at fault.
However, where the contractor said that the project board political member and the Programme Manager only visited the site “3 or possibly 4 times in 4 years”, was highlighted by the inquiry report as a cause for concern.
“It is a surprising fact that the two senior States of Alderney representatives did not visit the site or make themselves more visible in relation to this project,” states the report author.
“The report does address this and explores some of main reasons. That said, this apparent lack of visibility or engagement by the States, who relied heavily on the Project Manager, was also raised in interviews by others. My recommendations seek to prevent this from arising again in future projects.”
Work on the Connaught Care Home extension started in 2021.
The new rooms were due to be ready for residents by summer 2023, but the delays mean they still aren’t in use.
An open day was held yesterday so people in Alderney could see the new facilities.
It’s expected that people will soon move in.