Integrity risk found by auditors in ACT builder licence scheme

Access Canberra should also regularly review the accuracy and equivalence of construction occupations licenses in other states and territories.

Auditor-General Michael Harris said Access Canberra had a mature process to assess applications for licences and this was evident for the most part in applications reviewed by the ACT Audit Office.

But the audit, which made 13 recommendations, found the management of construction practitioner licensing in the territory was hampered by Access Canberra's use of multiple information systems, which have not been integrated.

"As a matter of priority Access Canberra needs to determine a strategy for its information systems for construction occupations licensing," Mr Harris said.

The audit also noted Commonwealth mutual recognition laws require the ACT to grant an ACT construction licence to a person who holds an equivalent licence in another jurisdiction, but there are times when there are no direct equivalences.

"In the absence of direct equivalences for some occupation classes, an opportunity exists for licensees to take advantage of the mutual recognition scheme to be issued with a licence in their home state, without the qualifications and work experience that would otherwise be required," the audit report said.

Mr Harris said the issue represented a risk to the integrity of licensing construction practitioners in the ACT.

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Access Canberra told auditors that the practice, known as "shopping and hopping", was a known issue for construction licensing in the territory.

Data provided to the Auditor-General showed of 507 applications for unrestricted electricians' licences in the ACT between July 2020 and October 2021, 64 per cent were from applicants who did not have a postal address in the territory.

"Access Canberra concluded that 180 (56 percent) of the applicants with a postal address not within the ACT had not undertaken any electrical work that they are licensed for in the ACT and that these applicants ... 'used their ACT licence to be mutually recognised for an equivalent licence in other jurisdictions including their home jurisdictions'," the audit report said.

The audit gave the example of a person who was granted a Class A builder's licence in the ACT through mutual recognition of their Queensland open builder's licence.

The Queensland licence had been issued on the same day the person applied for an ACT licence through the mutual recognition scheme, and the Queensland licence had used the same postal address in the ACT as their ACT licence and was cancelled after one year when it was not paid.

The audit report said it was probable the person had never been a practising builder in Queensland, and the use of an ACT postal address led the auditors to assume the applicant was working in the territory.

The person had provided evidence of holding an advanced diploma in a subsequent application.

This qualification is required for a Queensland open builder's licence, but is insufficient in the ACT for a non-mutual recognition licensing process," the report said.

"It is probable that this is an example of an applicant 'shopping and hopping', where they have undertaken tertiary education that meets the requirement of another state or territory, but fall below the tertiary education requirement of an equivalent licence in the ACT.

"Through the mutual recognition process, however, they are able to obtain the licence in the ACT."

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