Victoria’s building and plumbing regulator is failing to meet government performance targets and lagging on recommendations to improve its operations.

The office of the Victorian Auditor General conducted a limited assurance review of the Victorian Building Authority’s response to a raft of previous targets and recommendations.

Among these were targeting inspections to focus on high-risk buildings, improving workplace culture and improving information and data systems.

A report released last Wednesday says only five of 48 recommendations made in three separate reports since 2021 have been completed. Thirty-one are “in progress” and there’s been no progress on 12 – all of which involve major changes.

Meanwhile only six of 14 performance targets set by the planning minister for 2021-23 have been met. Five haven’t been met, and three have been partially met.

Needs to try harder

This didn’t mean efforts to improve weren’t being made, Auditor-General Andrew Greaves said. However, there was room for the VBA to lift its game.

“Nothing came to our attention to suggest that VBA isn’t responding to the recommendations,” MrGreaves said. “But it still has a lot of work to do to become a best-practice regulator.”

VBA was also failing to monitor its progress against targets, the report found.

“Doing this would help it manage risks and know if it’s on track,” it says.

The report makes one new recommendation to add to the list, which is that VBA sets up a system to ensure better monitoring.

The VBA’s interim chief commissioner Justin Madden said he was pleased to note the report’s conclusion that the authority has made “good progress’ in address the recommendations of the reviews, especially as some were received as recently as May.

“We are conscious that there is still more work to do, and we are committed to implementing the recommendations from the various reviews so that the VBA continues to improve as a trusted regulator,” he said.

The VBA was set up 2013 to regulate the building and plumbing industries, and is responsible for licensing builders and plumbers and making sure building and plumbing works meet quality and safety standards.

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