Article: Community transport scheme blast

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From the Melbourne Age click here!

Community transport scheme blast

Community transport scheme blast
Clay Lucas Transport Reporter
March 25, 2011

THE Auditor-General has savaged the management of a community transport program set up by the Brumby government, saying there was little evidence it had helped transport-starved communities.

The program received more than $40 million in funding, despite scant evidence its projects were making a difference.

The Transport Connections program provided 32 councils and community groups with money to run a range of local transport services visiting neglected areas, new community buses and taxi services, and one-off shuttle services at such events as community festivals.

The program tried to bring public transport to areas where none had existed for decades - if ever.

A report released on Wednesday by Auditor-General Des Pearson found that while many projects funded in the original $18 million program were worthwhile, it was poorly monitored by a range of government officers responsible for overseeing it between 2006 and 2010.

Despite this, the former government last year promised to pour another $23 million into the program, a plan the Baillieu government says will now continue until at least 2014.

Transport Connections is run by the Department of Planning and Community Development, and aims to help communities make better use of existing transport services.

The audit office found that in three out of four projects it examined there was:

- Little evidence to demonstrate the program's success or failure at improving local transport.

- Limited engagement with the community.

- Weak oversight by the steering committees set up by government to run projects.

- No proof funding decisions were sound, consistent or fair.

It also found that while the projects funded sought to establish services that could have been needed ''it was not evident that local activities were being effectively managed or were adequately addressing local needs''.

Both the planning and transport departments, the Auditor-General found, helped groups that applied to the program come up with sound proposals.

But there were not adequate records of how their applications were assessed, and no way of showing that decisions on how public money would be spent were fair or consistent.

Evaluation focused on activities and events involving those taking part in the project, and not the service's impact on meeting transport needs.

Projects funded included a summer holiday bus service for young people in East Gippsland, a free bike maintenance service in Melbourne's outer west, and a bus from Poowong to Warragul that provided the first public transport service in the hinterland of West Gippsland.

One of the councils to receive funding under the program was Macedon Ranges Shire.

Chief executive Peter Johnston yesterday said that under the initiative the council had been able to improve bus links to V/Line trains and had created a much-needed bus service between Romsey, Lancefield and Kyneton.

''It's well patronised by the residents,'' he said. ''The transport system doesn't run at a profit in Melbourne but it provides a valuable service, and so does the transport system that's been improved here.''