Education Minister, Anne Tolley, has today announced new initiatives to allow schools to get their property programmes underway more quickly.

�The changes will see a relaxation of some of the Ministry of Education's property project requirements that schools must currently follow when planning and designing classroom upgrades and other similar work,� says Mrs Tolley.

�These more streamlined processes should enable schools to get their building work underway more quickly, giving the economy a boost in the process.

�School property spending is critical to the government�s economic stimulus package announced in February, therefore I asked the Ministry of Education to review its project management requirements to ensure there were no unnecessary roadblocks hindering school building projects.�

The first set of initiatives is now in place, with more planned for July.

�I often receive valuable feedback from schools about how unnecessary bureaucracy can prevent them getting on with the job,� says Mrs Tolley.

"Some checks and balances do need to be in place, but sometimes it can be a case of overkill. The changes announced today are the first step in getting the balance right.� 

The new initiatives are:

• The Ministry can advance planning funding for all projects over $100,000 (the previous limit was $500,000) once a budget is approved. The threshold for that advance has increased from 5% to 10%. This change should enable schools to make faster progress with projects, particularly those included in the School Property Guide Deficiencies and Replacement Buildings programmes. Payment of planning fees is subject to a �project plan� being agreed to by the board, its project manager and the Ministry in accordance with its performance targets.
• The procurement threshold for seeking prices on GETS has increased from $50,000 to $100,000 and the threshold for obtaining a minimum of three quotations for easily specified items has increased from $50,000 to $100,000.
• The threshold for the one step reimbursement process has increased from $50,000 to $100,000.
  Existing project manager contracts are now able to be extended to include new project(s) if the subsequent project is less than $25,000 and is lower than the original project value.
• Rural schools may seek a change of their 5-year agreement (5YA) re-sign date if they are part of a formal school cluster that has been established to collectively employ project managers