The Bureau of Meteorology has been using hundreds of millions of dollars granted specifically for “proactive” maintenance of its ageing weather observing system to prop up the agency’s deteriorating financial position and cover cost overruns on major technology rollouts. According to a scathing audit report, it has also failed to account for this money.
The blistering assessment from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) has revealed an agency with missing plans or inexplicable broken promises. It is only meeting between 52 and 79 per cent of its own preventive maintenance targets and there are unresolved work orders on its live dashboards that are four years old.