THE Brumby government has again avoided public scrutiny of its implementation of the school stimulus program.
This happened after a Labor-stacked parliamentary committee deferred any proper assessment until after November's state election.
An interim report into the Building the Education Revolution program by the education and training committee, tabled yesterday, stated it was "not in a position to comment" on matters relating to Julia Gillard's $16.2billion scheme.
"The committee has not held any public hearings, has not made any school visits and has not discussed the contents of submissions received," it stated.
The committee inquiry was instigated by the opposition and minority members in the upper house, where Labor does not hold the majority, in April and the interim report was supposed to give voters an assessment before Victorians headed to the polls.
More than 60 written submissions have been made to the inquiry, including from 20 schools, which document a range of allegations from rorting to long delays, inflated costs and inept management.
But school communities may now never get answers as the committee admits in the report that as Victoria goes to the polls on November 27, the inquiry may never complete its final report, due in December.
"If a final report has not been tabled prior to the dissolution of the 56th parliament, the inquiry will lapse," it stated.
The committee said it was possible "the 57th parliament may refer the inquiry back . . . for completion". This failure follows constant criticism that the Brumby government has not been transparent in its implementation of the school stimulus program.
Principals have complained about being kept in the dark over project details. Victorian government officials also failed to show up to a Senate inquiry into the BER and Premier John Brumby got into a stoush with Julia Gillard and Brad Orgill, who heads the taskforce investigating the implementation of the BER, over releasing the exact project cost details.
After intervention by Education Minister Simon Crean during the election campaign, Mr Brumby promised to hand over individual school figures.
Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu said it was "incredibly disappointing" there would be no analysis of the program before the November poll.
