Downloads & Appendices

Additional Financial Disclosures

Financial Targets: Actuals Compared to Budget

The following table provides a comparison of the financial targets and outcomes against criteria included in the Resource Agreement between the Commissioner of Main Roads, Minister for Transport and the Treasurer.

(1) As specified in the Budgets Statements.

(2) Further explanations are contained in Note 9.13 ‘Explanatory statements (Controlled Operations)’ to the financial statements.

1. The variation in Total Cost of Services is mainly due to:
   • Supplies and services underspent by $105.3 million as a result of higher than anticipated capital works expenditure on Local Roads which includes Stephenson Avenue extension and Abernethy Road.
   • Grants and subsidies was higher by $50.270 million due to transfers of completed infrastructure assets to Local Government including Drumpellier Drive and Hepburn Avenue Noisewall.
2. The variation in Net Cost of Services is mainly due to:
   • An increase in Grants from other bodies as a result of infrastructure assets transferred in from Local Government to the value of $1.436 billion.
3. The variation in Total Equity is mainly due to:
   • The Infrastructure Asset value was underestimated by $2.229 billion compared to the Original Target. Road transfers from Local Government were approved in 2020-21, earlier than estimated, for Marmion Avenue, Ocean Reef Road and Gnangara Road, Curtin Avenue and Broome Cape Leveque Road.
4. The variation in Salary Expense is mainly due to:
   • additional workforce requirements relating to the accelerated delivery of the larger Asset Investment Program and a reduced number of staff members taking leave due to COVID-19 international border impacts.
5. Main Roads did not borrow any funds during the 2020-21 financial year.

1. The variation in Working Cash Limit was a result of higher payments associated with fast tracking of Major projects to assist with economic stimulus during COVID-19.

Capital Works

All disclosures in relation to capital works are included in the Financial Statements and Notes. Our annual Strategic Asset Plan details our 10-year investment needs and drivers. The Strategic Asset Plan adheres to the Department of Treasury’s Strategic Asset Management Framework. Each major capital project follows the national Austroads project evaluation methodology where a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) is calculated incorporating quantifiable economic data and is supplemented by simplified economic, environmental and social assessments. The BCR records information on the benefits of a project on travel time savings, vehicle operating costs and smoother travel, safety, and maintenance. Other benefits and costs are considered via a multi-criteria analysis. Capital works financial progress is reported to the Corporate Executive on a monthly basis. Indirect economic benefits are now being measured in an attempt to assess the wider positive impacts delivered to the economy through enabling infrastructure. We have adopted a post project evaluation framework endorsed by Australian Transport Assessment and Planning and is a key feature of ISCA’s Rating Tool, V2.0 to measure project success.

Ethical Procurement

The Western Australian Procurement Act 2020 (the Act), and Western Australian Procurement Rules (the Rules) came into full operation on 1 June 2021, replacing the State Supply Commission Act 1993 and Policies. Our procurement processes comply with the new requirements and continue to be certified to ISO 9001:2015. An ongoing compliance program is in place to ensure these policies and procedures are adhered to.

In addition to this, we introduced data analytics dashboards to enhance the compliance program these are reviewed periodically and any findings addressed.

A Tender Committee, consisting of two experienced senior officers from our organisation and two senior external government officials, provides additional assurance that procurement actions comply with policies and standards for high-risk and potentially contentious procurements. External probity auditors are engaged for large, complex or controversial procurement activities.

Social and Sustainable Procurement

The Government introduced the Western Australian Social Procurement Framework to enable improved social, economic and environmental benefits by leveraging government’s procurement activity to improve community outcomes.

The Framework brings together all the state’s social and sustainability policies and in conjunction with the Social Procurement Framework Practice Guide gives a clear message that social procurement forms part of value for money decision making.

We have a range of practices and internal policies in place to deliver sustainable and social procurement outcomes that exceed the state’s requirements.

• We have exceeded the requirements of the State Aboriginal Procurement Policy and mandated targets with 36 contracts going to registered Aboriginal business at a value of $12.5 million representing 14.6 per cent of our total contracts.
• We had minimum mandatory targets for Aboriginal employment and business engagement in our major works contracts. During the year, 425,112 hours were worked by Aboriginal people on our contracts, with an Aboriginal business spend of $76.7 million.
• The WA Government’s Buy Local Policy is applied in the evaluation of tenders and requires the successful contractor to report monthly on Buy Local commitments.
• The Western Australian Industry Participation Strategy is applied to all contracts that meet the value thresholds, tenderers are required to submit local participation plans to detail employment and local subcontracting opportunities that will arise if awarded the contract.

Procurement Grievances

Our procedure for dealing with procurement grievances is referenced in all tender documents and is accessible from our website. Endorsed by the Western Australian Road and Rail Construction and Maintenance Industry Advisory Group, the procedure provides for a customer-focused, fair, structured and relationship-based approach to reviewing grievances lodged by contractors. This is the fourth year where no grievances were received, confirming our procurement processes continue to be fair and equitable.

Unauthorised Use of Credit Cards

We hold 561 corporate credit cards with transactions reviewed for personal use by incurring and certifying officers during statement processing.

During the financial year there were 35,905 credit card transactions totalling $24,014,887.68, of which 39 transactions totalling $2007.33 were found to be for personal expenditure.

• All transactions were accidental use of the corporate card instead of a personal card and have been repaid.

Due to the nature of the personal expenditure in each instance, no disciplinary action was deemed to be required.

Pricing Policies of Services Provided

Our supply of goods and services represents works and services carried out for other public sector and private bodies on a cost recovery basis. Details are available in the notes to the Financial Statements. Relevant pricing policies we set are developed in accordance with the Department of Treasury’s Costing and Pricing Government Services Guidelines.

Government Building Training Policy

State Government Building and Construction Contracts

Statement of Expenditure

In accordance with Section 175ZE of the Electoral Act 1907, Main Roads incurred expenses of $390,300.00 during 2020–21 in advertising, market research, polling, direct mail and media advertising. Expenditure was incurred in the following areas:

Additional Environmental and Sustainability Disclosures

Infrastructure Sustainability Rating Status

We use the Infrastructure Sustainability (IS) Rating Scheme to evaluate sustainability within our highest value major projects. We have mandated that all projects greater than $100 million will be formally registered to undergo an IS rating. The table below indicates the status of our registered ratings across the project phases of planning, development, design and construction.

Emissions by Type due to Operations and Congestion

As part of a commitment to develop a data driven approach to addressing congestion, based around agreed performance metrics and targets, a cloud based data factory was developed to collate and report road network performance data across major roads in metropolitan Perth.

The data system collates speed and volume information from multiple data sources across the 4,300 links, which currently represent the Perth major road network. Data is recorded on each link for every 15-minute interval dating back to January 2013. This system has been named the Network Performance Reporting System (NetPReS). Using the Australian Transport Assessment and Planning Guidelines 2016 published by the Transport and Infrastructure Council, NetPReS data has been used to estimate emissions trends on state roads and significant local roads in the Perth metropolitan area.

We act to directly manage the traffic flow of vehicles, which has consequences for the overall environmental impacts from the use of the road network that includes carbon emissions and air quality. The following tables reflect the impact that the roads we directly manage are having on energy use and emissions, which give an indication of the impact to air quality.

Emissions Metrics

*Note: Air travel, project and maintenance fuel usage and waste are Scope 3 emissions

Imported Road Construction Materials

Imported Recycled Construction Materials

Waste Materials to Landfill (Waste)

Materials Recycled

Data is based on calendar year

Waste Management: Roadsides, Buildings and Facilities

Reducing waste from across our business and supply chain is of increasing importance to support the circular economy, reduce emissions and lower our overall environmental footprint. Our infrastructure projects have the potential to generate significant volumes of wastes including contaminated materials. We are embedding principles of the WA Waste Strategy 2030 including reducing single-use plastics in our offices, increasing waste and recycled diversion rates, and implementing the containers for change initiative to support local community groups at a number of our project site offices.

We collaborate with key stakeholders, interested parties and community groups for a consistent litter management approach taking into account individual regional requirements. We continue to implement our State-Wide Litter Plan developed with the primary objectives of educating road users to take their litter with them and to reduce littering and illegal dumping. Implementing the plan involves boosting public awareness as well as increasing community buy-in and participation in litter reduction programs and behaviours. To facilitate this objective we provide funding to Keep Australia Beautiful to support the ‘WA naturally thanks you initiative’.

Stakeholder Map – Stakeholder Inclusiveness

We engage with two broad categories of stakeholders, adjusting our engagement approach to meet their needs. Refer to our materiality assessment to view the broad current concerns and how they are being addressed.

Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders are a person, business, organisation or group, interested in or impacted by a project or initiative we are undertaking. Initial identification occurs during the Planning stages of a project and new stakeholders are identified through the project lifecycle based on their interest or impact. Project stakeholders can vary from project to project and are tracked and managed in our Customer Relationship Management System (CONNECT). Project stakeholder concerns are unique to each project and are identified during the stakeholder engagement planning process and addressed further through a range of stakeholder engagement and community consultation activities including stakeholder forums and briefings, surveys and reference groups. Responses to topics and concerns are articulated in the project Communication and Engagement Strategy, which differs from project to project.

Corporate Stakeholders

Corporate stakeholders are a person, business, organisation or group interested in or impacted by our agency who may partner with us and influence or hamper the work we do. Corporate stakeholders are identified using an annual process that involves internal stakeholders across the entire organisation. Timing of the process aligns with our business planning cycle, to ensure that stakeholder engagement is a key enabler of business plans at all levels. We determine corporate stakeholder concerns using a biennial materiality review, performed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative. The review draws from our corporate and legislative requirements, key risks, media and ministerial topics and peer reporting practices to determine what is important to our stakeholders.

To complement and inform these two broad categories we also liaise and work through a range of forums both nationally and internationally to ensure that we are abreast of potential future trends and to work towards harmonisation of processes across Australia.

Our Approach to Stakeholder Engagement

We have adopted the AA1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard 2015 (AA1000SES) to help us design, implement and assess quality stakeholder engagement that delivers integrated, sustainable outcomes.

Our engagement principles of Inclusivity, Materiality and Responsiveness are based on AA1000SES. We have also adopted the principle of Completeness to align with our commitment to sustainability, driven by the Global Reporting Initiative.

The AA1000SES principles underpin our engagement process to ensure we can effectively manage expectations about how feedback and involvement will influence decision-making, whilst considering project, commercial and political realities:

Frequency of engagement with each project stakeholder group depends on the specific concern or method of engagement identified in the Project Communications and Engagement Strategy.

Each engagement is tracked and managed through our customer relationship management system. Corporate stakeholder type and frequency of engagement is identified in the annual Corporate Stakeholder Engagement Action Plan and is dependent on the stakeholder concern and priority level.

Land Acquisition for Road Projects

In instances when extra land is required to improve existing roads or to provide new transport corridors, land is acquired by negotiation or ‘formal taking action’ under the powers contained in the Land Administration Act 1997. The process of acquiring land can have significant community and social impacts. We aim to commence acquisition of land, two years prior to construction. Landowners have certain rights under the Act, such as the ability to object to the land take proposal, and are entitled to compensation. Further information is available on our website.

Additional Governance Disclosures

Our Legislation

The Main Roads Act 1930, as amended, establishes the Commissioner of Main Roads as a corporate body and sets out the powers and duties of the office.

Additional Western Australian legislation guiding, and empowering Main Roads includes:

• Land Administration Act 1997 providing powers for resumption of, and entry onto land
• Section 131 (Liability for damage to road infrastructure) of the Road Traffic (Administration) Act 2008
• Regulation 297 of the Road Traffic Code 2000 providing the Commissioner with the power to erect road signs and traffic signals, and install road marking
• Section 40 of the Road Traffic (Vehicles) Act 2012 providing the Commissioner with the authority to give an access approval for a complying restricted access vehicle to be on a road
• Section 33 of the Road Traffic (Vehicles) Act 2012 providing the Commissioner with the authority to modify a mass or dimension requirement, as provided in the Regulations.

We have processes and controls in place ensuring our compliance with other state and commonwealth legislation and regulations impacting on our activities.

Ministerial Directives

There were no directives issued by the Minister for Transport during the year under section 19(b) of the Main Roads Act 1930 (WA), as amended.

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 1992 (WA) gives the public a general right to apply for access to documents held by government agencies. An information statement in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI)Act is available on our website. This statement provides a guide on how to apply for access to documents, as well as information about documents that may be available outside of the FOI process. During the year, we received 54 FOI applications. Enquiries on FOI can be emailed to: foi@mainroads.wa.gov.au.

Customer Privacy

Main Roads, as with all Western Australian Government agencies, is not subject to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth) and to date we do not have an equivalent statute. However, where possible, we adhere to the Australian Privacy Principles set out in Schedule 1 of the Privacy Act. Work is being conducted by the Department of Premier and Cabinet to introduce new whole-of-government privacy and responsible information sharing legislation for the Western Australian public sector.

We value the privacy of our customers and comply with the CCTV Usage Policy that outlines appropriate use and we do not automatically record on our CCTV cameras. We also operate in accordance with the Surveillance Devices Regulations 1999. Our approach to privacy is available on our website.

Public Interest Disclosures

We are committed to the aims and objectives of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2003 (WA). We recognise the value and importance of contributions by staff to enhance administrative and management practices and strongly support disclosures made regarding improper conduct.

Conflicts of Interest and Acceptance of Gifts

Our Code of Conduct and Integrity Framework requires all employees to ensure personal, financial and political interests do not conflict with performance or ability to perform in an impartial manner. Where a conflict of interest has been identified, strict declaration procedures must be followed. To ensure compliance with the Australian Accounting Standard AASB 124, a Related Party Transaction Declaration is signed by all senior officers .

Employees and contract personnel must not be influenced, or perceived to be influenced, by the offer or receipt of gifts, hospitality, or benefits in the course of their work. We maintain a register of Gifts and Benefits.

Integrated Management System

Our Integrated Management System (IMS) brings together our third-party certified systems and processes into a single framework. During the year we undertook a surveillance audit confirming we continue to comply with all requirements.