Audit exposes road safety fund failings

Millions of dollars in speed camera fines in Western Australia are being spent without appropriate ministerial oversight and with inadequate guidance as to where funds would be best directed.

In a report into the $100 million Road Trauma Trust Account released on Tuesday, auditor general Caroline Spencer lashed the Road Safety Commission for failing to meet its legal obligation to confirm or obtain ministerial approval before releasing funds for road safety initiatives.

The report detailed an informal situation where the Road Safety Council would make recommendations to the road safety minister, currently David Michael, and the commission would include them in an annual budget submission.

This, Ms Spencer found, did not meet ministerial approval obligations to ensure money was lawfully spent under the Road Safety Council Act, which states funds can only be applied to purposes determined by the minister.

“Cabinet is an important convention in our Westminster system, serving as a deliberative body to determine legislative and executive policy of government,” Ms Spencer said.

“However, it is an informal association of ministers and its decisions have no legal force except to the extent they are put into effect by individual ministers.”

The report also found calls made 11 years ago to improve on determining how to spend the fund were still not being heard, with clear priorities to guide best use of the account not in place.

While a plan has been built in the years since 2012, Ms Spencer found it simply listed focus areas instead of setting clear expectations on where to spend the money.

Further to this, the report noted funding applications were not effectively assessed, training was lacking, project outcomes were not effectively evaluated, and the council often did not know if existing projects were working.

Five of the 10 road safety projects reviewed by the auditor general did not include analysis of how road safety had been improved.

Another project, which has attracted $56.7 million from the account, has operated for 10 years without an independent review.

“Improving how it identifies and assesses projects to fund and then monitoring their impact will allow funding recommendations to the minister to be better aligned and targeted to clear priorities and give the public confidence RTTA funds are effectively used,” Ms Spencer said.

“Our audit has come at a time of change and opportunity for road safety in WA with the potential increase in RTTA funding from implementation of new point-to-point camera technologies.

“However, three years into the strategy it is clear there is still a long way to go to reach the ambitious targets to reduce lives lost or seriously injured on WA roads by 2030.”

Ms Spencer said she was pleased to see work begin to address issues identified by the report.

The Road Safety Commission and Council adopted all recommendations made in the report, including to improvements to framework to evaluate funding recommendations, the ministerial approvals process, and information gathering.

“The council and the commission have commenced implementing reforms to strengthen governance, accountability and integrity,” the entities said in a joint statement responding to the report.

“These reforms seek to address the inherent complexities within the road safety portfolio.

“Legislative amendments should be considered to ensure legal clarity and to effectively manage risks arising from conflicts of interests.”

The RTTA uses income generated from speeding fines to fund road safety initiatives.

Some $69 million in extra revenue each year is expected to flush the account’s coffers as a result of new point-to-point cameras which detect speed, mobile phones, and seat belt use.

WA’s road death toll has remained stubbornly consistent between 160 to 200 deaths per year since the program began in 2012.