WA to review $2b of Acciona contracts after its staff viewed rivals' bids in a Water Corporation tender

The State Government will comb through at least $2 billion worth of contracts held by construction giant Acciona, after the company's staff looked at confidential details of rival bids in a Water Corporation tender instead of reporting that they had been given access by mistake.

Water Minister Daniel Pastorelli confirmed on Friday that Acciona has been removed from the race to build the Binduli reservoir duplication, south of Kalgoorlie, and that the breach has triggered a government-wide review of its work for the State. The story was first reported by The West Australian.

What happened

According to the minister, the Water Corporation gave Acciona access to information about two competing bidders for the reservoir project through what he called an isolated human error. Acciona staff opened the material rather than flagging the mistake, and the utility only found out later.

Mr Pastorelli said he could not say how, or whether, the information was used. With Acciona out of the running, the tender is continuing with the two remaining bidders, who have been told what happened.

"The reality is, they had access and didn't report it, which was wrong." — Daniel Pastorelli, Water Minister

He described the incident as unacceptable and said the government wanted a "very, very strong, resilient procurement process" for its major contracts.

The review

The Department of Treasury and Finance is leading an investigation that will look at every government contract with Acciona worth more than $50 million over the past six years, whether the company held it alone or as part of a consortium. Those contracts are worth more than $2 billion.

The real total is likely to be higher. That figure does not include work for government-owned businesses such as the Water Corporation and Western Power, which were not counted in the department tally.

Projects Acciona has been involved in include the Alkimos desalination plant in Perth's northern suburbs, the Clean Energy Link North and East transmission projects, and the Bunbury Outer Ring Road.

Separately, the Water Corporation will run an internal review into how the confidential tender material ended up in Acciona's hands. Acciona is paying for that review.

What Acciona says

Acciona said the employees involved no longer work for the company, after its own investigation into "a small number" of staff concluded.

"Acciona takes all allegations of misconduct seriously." — Acciona spokesperson

The company said it supported the Treasury investigation and would co-operate fully.

Why it matters

Acciona is one of the biggest builders of public infrastructure in WA, and the projects in question are the ones Perth relies on for water, power and roads. Tender processes are meant to be confidential so that bidders compete on price and quality without seeing each other's numbers. A rival's pricing in hand, even briefly, is exactly what that system is supposed to prevent.

The breach also raises questions about the Water Corporation itself, which handed over the data in the first place. The government has not said when either review will report or whether the findings will be made public.

Everything Perth will follow the reviews as they progress.

Photo: Calistemon via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). A file photo of the Goldfields Water Supply Scheme pipeline north of Norseman, not the Binduli reservoir site.