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Four days after the state elections of March 8 won for the work under Prime Minister Roger Cook, the private company was paid $ 86 million to provide recruitment and training services to the WA Electoral Commission sent an email to the temporary workforce to say thanks.
“We really appreciate your time, effort and dedication,” said email.
“His role was vital to guarantee a voting process without problems and keep the voting places in open and operational Western Australia.”
Smooth? Hardly.
Personnel scarcity, ballots, experience and other essential operating elements require independent investigation into what came out on voting day.
Veteran political and columnist journalist for The Western AustralianPaul Murray has argued that only a real commission will get answers to so many questions. It may well be right.
An example of the scratch of the head after the elections is the lack of transparency around the generous contract granted to the Persolkelly recruiter.
The $ 86 million were signed at the end of 2023, but there is no detailed registration of money in any of the WAEC budgetary documents, which are presented in Parliament and must make clear the “total assignments provided to provide services.”
To give that apparent omission some context, the full budget of the WAEC for 2024-25 was $ 50 million.
According to the head of “important problems” in the most recent state budget, the WAEC recognized “increased pressures” in terms of finding personnel to administer the elections.
There is no information about the process that led to Persolkelly’s appointment and the huge contract is not mentioned in the recent WAEC annual reports.
For its part, the company responded to suggestions that it was responsible for some of the Shambolic election day operations.
“On voting day, Persolkelly Australia was asked to provide support personnel for 682 voting stations,” reads a statement.
“One hundred percent of these sites were addressed and operational. The total number of required personnel, and the roles are determined by the WAEC.”
This response could be very critical of the commission planning, because there is a great gap between the 7,000 people recruited by Persolkelly and the 10,000 required, according to the tender of the contract.
“Persolkelly Australia has successfully recruited and deployed the personnel requested by the WAEC in line with the project requirements,” said the company.
The intimacy is that the WAEC fell short in the real number of people necessary to manage the elections despite saying that “approximately 10,000 temporary electoral workers” would have to be recruited in the bidding document.
The available evidence suggests that the WAEC only realized that some voting cabins would have a bit of staff, which contributed to unusually long and frustratingly slow tails.
When the ballots were over in some voting places, the voters gave up and went home.
Persolkelly said in his media statement that “he received almost three times the number of applicants for the roles required by the WAEC.”
Interestingly, all personnel committed to the elections, both WAEC and the temporary workers hired by Persolkelly, must complete a survey as part of the commission’s client’s satisfaction responsibility.
The answers, if they are made public or are available for a consultation, will be crucial to determine how bad things were on the vote.
One of the other questions that are asked is why counting was so slow after the cabins were closed, which certainly puts another dent in the precious reputation of the WAEC.
“The reputation of the Commission as an organization that offers precise, timely and profitable electoral results depends greatly on the thoroughness of our planning, quality and training of our staff, the effectiveness of our systems and processes, and the application of the highest standards of impartiality, justice and probability,” reads annual report 2023.
All of the above requires serious scrutiny.
• Gary Adshead presents the Drive program at ABC Radio
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