"THE national auditor has slammed the Howard Government's use of a key regional grants program, citing many examples of financial mismanagement and apparent pork-barrelling.
The Government pumped a third of the money from the Regional Partnerships program into 10 rural Coalition seats over three years, asking for a list of 100 projects by electorate and bid amount to be funded in the 2004 election lead-up.
And the auditor found that ministers were more likely to overrule departmental opposition to specific projects if they came from Coalition seats, and more likely to knock back funding for projects recommended by the department if they originated in Labor seats.
The damning suggestions of pork-barrelling are in an audit report released today that shows $110 million worth of projects approved for regional partnerships funding between 2003 and 2006 breached its own financial management rules.
It shows the Government, including then regional services minister John Anderson and then parliamentary secretary DeAnne Kelly, regularly overruled departmental objections to funding proposals and, in some cases, did so without having received a grant application.
And the auditor found that ministers were more likely to overrule departmental opposition to specific projects if they came from Coalition seats, and more likely to knock back funding for projects recommended by the department if they originated in Labor seats.
The damning suggestions of pork-barrelling are in an audit report released today that shows $110 million worth of projects approved for regional partnerships funding between 2003 and 2006 breached its own financial management rules.
It shows the Government, including then regional services minister John Anderson and then parliamentary secretary DeAnne Kelly, regularly overruled departmental objections to funding proposals and, in some cases, did so without having received a grant application.
"The manner in which the program has been administered over the three-year period to 30 June 2006 examined by ANAO had fallen short of an acceptable standard of public administration," the Australian National Audit Office said."
The Age full article today:
The Age full article today:
Well what could you expect with John Howard in charge of the bickie tin. Weren't both his father and grandfather caught raiding the pantry in the 1920s and 30s. What is that old saying? The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree.
"But Howard's father had another life. While this old soldier worked his humble Sydney service station, he was also - on paper - a New Guinea planter with a string of estates where 200 native labourers grew copra in his name. Lyall Howard had cashed in his status as a returned digger to "dummy" for the trading house W. R. Carpenter and Company Ltd. His own father, Walter, was doing it, too. The Howard case provoked secret, official investigations at the highest levels in Canberra, but they and their powerful backer got away with the scam."
The Sydney Morning Herald full article:
"Shortly after these allegations (c. 1939) it was claimed Sir Walter Carpenter gave his palatial Sydney residence to the Australian government for a children's home before leaving to settle in Canada."
Some background on the New Guinea plantation rort:
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