Regulating dam safety

Tabled Report 9: 2021–22

Tabled date

2021-12-08

Report year

2021-22

Infrastructure Natural resources

Entities audited

Not identified in the published HTML audit scope.

Recommendations

1. QAO's text Addressed to: We recommend that the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water improves the implementation and application of its regulatory framework and approach to dam safety to embed better compliance. This

   We recommend that the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water improves the implementation and application of its regulatory framework and approach to dam safety to embed better compliance. This should include:

   • better understanding the level of non-compliance
   • acting on non-compliance, using the full range of enforcement measures at its disposal to address serious or persistent non-compliance
   • assessing its performance to determine outcomes
   • adopting a continuous improvement approach.

2. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water

   revises the acceptable flood capacity guidelines, requiring dam owners to advise it how and when spillways scheduled for upgrade will be completed and report progress

3. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water

   reviews frequencies for conducting risk assessments and/or flood capacity for dams, particularly those conducted more than a decade ago that may have underestimated flood risk

4. QAO's text Addressed to: the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water

   maximises the engineering expertise available by adopting appropriate work processes, systems, and team structure to enable consistency across all areas of compliance

5. QAO's text Addressed to: revises and documents its process for selecting the number and priority of dam site audits to ensure it is reflecting industry good practice. This

   revises and documents its process for selecting the number and priority of dam site audits to ensure it is reflecting industry good practice. This should balance the value of on-site inspections and face-to-face dialog with dam operators with the time needed to cycle through the audit population

6. QAO's text Addressed to: revises and documents its process for selecting the number and priority of dam site audits to ensure it is reflecting industry good practice. This

   revises its risk factors to include consideration of a dam owner’s capacity to pay, based on forward budgets and plans, when prioritising compliance activities for dam upgrades

7. QAO's text Addressed to: revises and documents its process for selecting the number and priority of dam site audits to ensure it is reflecting industry good practice. This

   better aligns the Referable Dams Register (which is its dam monitoring system) with the compliance outcomes needed, to ensure a more centralised and consistent way to accurately capture owners’ compliance information

8. QAO's text Addressed to: revises and documents its process for selecting the number and priority of dam site audits to ensure it is reflecting industry good practice. This

   improves its records management processes and practices, including accurately documenting when inspections and reports are due and received

9. QAO's text Addressed to: revises and documents its process for selecting the number and priority of dam site audits to ensure it is reflecting industry good practice. This

   sets clear escalation thresholds and acts in a timely and effective manner to address identified non-compliance and record outcomes of enforcement.

Authoritative report — Queensland Audit Office

Report PDF on QAO