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Creation Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2010 GMT

$550,000 canteen too small for a pie warmer

BARELY bigger than a cubby house, canteens built under the federal government's schools stimulus scheme are costing taxpayers $25,000 a square metre.
In NSW, 19 of the school tuckshops measuring 3m x 8m will cost between $550,000 and $600,000 each.

Orange Grove Public School, in Sydney's inner west, was knocked back on its request for a school hall, but given $550,000 to build a brick canteen too small to fit a stove or even a pie-warmer.

The materials for the canteen are estimated to have cost $29,680, based on an analysis of the NSW Education Department's materials list, and prices from the building industry costs guide Rawlinsons.

A fitout for a commercial cafe would cost $126,000, according to the Rawlinsons guide. Yet the Sydney school has been charged $308,000 for the canteen superstructure, $81,853 for design documentation, field data and site management - the architectural and engineering fees - and $60,956 for preliminaries, which includes scaffolding, security fencing, portaloos and protection equipment for building workers.

The secretary of the school's Parents & Citizens Association, Louise Appel, said yesterday the canteen was the size of her kitchen at home, "and I don't have a very big kitchen".

"It's crazy, really," Ms Appel said. "It's like a cubby house. We have no room for anything like we had hoped for, like a stove.

"We were given two hotplates to sit on top of the bench.

"We've got an old pie oven and are still trying to work out where to put it on the bench because there isn't any room."

Ms Appel said the school already had a tiny tuckshop and had asked that a larger one be incorporated into a new hall, as the 188 students had to walk to the nearby Leichhardt Municipal Hall or use neighbouring schools' facilities.

But NSW Education told the school its federal grant would not cover the cost of building a hall, so it was given the tuckshop instead.

"We understand economic stimulus, but this is not what this is," Ms Appel said.

"They're doing this with our money, with taxpayers' money."

The project manager, Abigroup, is eligible for $5421 in project management costs, as well as a $15,320 incentive fee for building on time and within budget.

The builder, Redwood Projects, reveals on its website that it had fitted out a 150sq m commercial kitchen in the northwest of Sydney for just $150,000 - or $1000 per sq m.

Craig Mayne, a parent from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Brisbane electorate who has waged a campaign against Building the Education Revolution blow-outs, yesterday said the 24 sq m canteens should cost only $31,500, based on Rawlinsons' estimates figures.

Yet in outback NSW, more schools are receiving $600,000 canteens through the Rudd government's $16.2bn BER scheme.

A school in the Aboriginal community of Toomelah, near the Queensland border, has had to cough up about $20,000 to finish off its $650,000 tuckshop with airconditioning, a security door, shelving and concrete.

Its 24 sq m "superstructure" is priced at $184,825, with another $114,237 for "preliminaries" and $92,922 for "design documentation, field data and site management".

Principal Paul Sortwell confirmed that extra funds had been used "to enhance the facility for our own personal use" for the school's 60 students.

"That's money we've happily spent to modify it to our needs,"Mr Sortwell said.

Yanco Public School, in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area, also has a tiny tuckshop costing $600,000, with $166,867 for design documentation, field data and site management, $11,925 for site services and $42,704 for preliminaries.

Tottenham Central School, west of Dubbo, cannot fit the fridges from its old demountable canteen into the new building that is half the size.

P&C president Rick Bennett said the local council was building a stainless steel canteen and office six times the size of the school's new tuckshop - with toilets - for $415,000 just 500m from the school.

"I'm absolutely bloody gutted that there's been $600,000 of taxpayer money on this," he said yesterday.

"It should cost $80,000."

Mr Bennett, who will make a 1000km round trip to Sydney at his own expense to address the Senate inquiry into BER tomorrow, said the school feared it would lose its old demountable tuckshop.

"I know in our community you could put up two four-bedroom houses (with $600,000) yet we've got a canteen that's not big enough to put in the fridge or freezer."

Mr Bennett said that when he complained to a meeting of NSW education bureaucrats and building managers that the school's meat slicer would not fit into the new tuckshop, he was advised to buy pre-sliced meat.

The project manager, Laing O'Rourke, will be paid a $4675 "incentive fee" and $18,001 in "project management costs".

The NSW Education Department's BER website reveals the canteen "superstructure" will cost $161,042, with $116,000 for site services, $114,162 for design documentation, field data and site management, and $80,000 for "preliminaries".

Natasha Bita, 'The Australian', May 17 2010