WA Government Seeks Refund from Deloitte Over Flawed University Merger Cost Report
The Western Australian government is demanding a swift repayment from Deloitte after the firm's feasibility study on a proposed merger of UWA, Curtin and Murdoch contained massive cost miscalculations and AI-generated false references.
The Western Australian government commissioned Deloitte for a $166,000 feasibility study on merging the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Murdoch University. Deloitte presented three merger options with low, mid and high cost scenarios, yet the appendix revealed glaring arithmetic errors—a $260 million discrepancy in the high-cost model and a $311 million discrepancy in the low-cost model. The report also contained AI-generated references, including a World Health Organization link tagged with ChatGPT metadata, and repeatedly used an outdated name for Curtin University.
Experts said the mistakes undermine confidence in the study and called for a manual rewrite without AI assistance. The Department of Energy and Economic Diversification has written to Deloitte demanding an expedited cost recovery, while the tertiary education minister first labeled the errors “typos” before later expressing disappointment. Deloitte has not responded to inquiries.
Why it matters
The case exposes the pitfalls of AI-assisted consulting in government projects and could stall a major university merger.
In this story
