‘Extremely disappointed’: WA government seeks reimbursement from Deloitte over flawed university report
Source: The Guardian ·
State paid consultancy firm $166,000 for feasibility study on merging the three tertiary institutionsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Western Australian government has said it is “extremely disappointed” and is seeking an “expedited” cost recovery from Deloitte after errors were discovered in a report about a potential university merger, including AI-hallucinated…
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The Western Australian government has said it is “extremely disappointed” and is seeking an “expedited” cost recovery from Deloitte after errors were discovered in a report about a potential university merger, including AI-hallucinated references and hundreds of millions of dollars in cost discrepancies. The government paid Deloitte $166,000 for a feasibility study on merging the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Murdoch University. Deloitte considered three merger options between the three universities, with “low”, “mid” and “high” cost scenarios, and broke down the calculations of those costs in the report’s appendix. Under the “high” cost scenario of a merger between Curtin and UWA, the report calculates the “total costs to day 1” as $514m, and “post day 1” over five years at $145m. The total cost of those two payments is $659m but the report wrote $399m – a $260m discrepancy. Prof Stephen Bartos, an expert in public sector governance at the University of…