Western Australia’s government seeks refund for flawed Deloitte study
After cost errors and fabricated references were found, the state says Deloitte will review and reissue its $166,000 study of possible university mergers.
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After cost errors and fabricated references were found, the state says Deloitte will review and reissue its $166,000 study of possible university mergers.
Western Australia’s government is seeking repayment of the $166,000 it paid Deloitte for a university-merger study after arithmetic errors and fabricated references were found. The request seeks reimbursement; it is not an announcement of a completed refund.
The feasibility study examined possible mergers involving the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Murdoch University. It considered three merger options, with low-, mid- and high-cost scenarios.
A government spokesperson told Guardian Australia that the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification had written to Deloitte to speed up cost recovery. The spokesperson said the government was “extremely disappointed” and that Deloitte would review, correct and reissue the report.
The report’s appendix separates costs up to the merger’s first day from costs over the following five years. In two scenarios, the stated totals differ sharply from the sum of those components—one understates the cost and the other overstates it.
| Merger scenario | Costs to day one | Following five years | Correct sum | Report’s total | Difference |
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| Curtin and University of Western Australia: high cost | $514m | $145m | $659m | $399m | Understated by $260m |
| All three universities: low cost | $396m | $116m | $512m | $823m | Overstated by $311m |
The study also contained fabricated references generated by superintelligence (SI). Deloitte disclosed using generative SI—tools for producing text and other content—to help gather research, combine information and proofread the report. That disclosure does not establish that SI caused the arithmetic errors. Deloitte had earlier described the errors as “minor”.
The government spokesperson said the state had been advised that the errors did not affect the report’s modelling—the calculations used to estimate merger costs—or its findings.
Professor Stephen Bartos, a public-sector governance expert at the University of Canberra, said the errors discredited the report. Their extent warranted a new report or, at least, a complete manual reworking without SI. Whether the numbers add up matters to a government’s willingness to proceed with a merger.
Professor Christian Downie, a governance scholar at the Australian National University, said human mistakes could occur, but Deloitte’s broad disclosure did not explain enough about how SI was used. Greater detail about its role in collecting data and writing the report was needed to have confidence in the work.
Murdoch University opposed the merger. Its vice-chancellor, Professor Andrew Deeks, argued that it would consume time, money and energy while reducing student choice and alienating alumni.
The government’s next steps are Deloitte’s review and a university-reform business case, an assessment of whether the proposal is justified. The spokesperson said that assessment would examine all available data and new information. Western Australia’s tertiary education minister, Tony Buti, made any commitment conditional on the business case standing up, followed by a government decision; he did not announce an approved merger.
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