Great Barrier Reef Foundation: waiting for the inevitable crash

Mainstream media reports that Australian Prime Minister & Liberal MP for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull (former director Goldman Sachs), Minister for Environment and Energy & Liberal MP for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg (former director Deutsche Bank Australia) and Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation & Member of the Business Council of Australia John Schubert (former chair Commonwealth Bank) met on 9 April 2018 to discuss the allocation of a grant valued at in excess of AU$487.6 million to the foundation.

It was also reported that no officials from the Department of the Environment and Energy were present at that meeting when the grant offer was made and apparently accepted.

Less than ten weeks later the grant was formally approved without meeting all relevant provisions in the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines 2017.

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation with a staff of only six full-time employees now has no more than 6 financial years to spend this large sum, which represents est. 69.66 per cent of funds held in the federal government operated Reef Trust since 2014 and 97.52 per cent of additional funds received by the trust on 29 April 2018.

Leaving the Reef Trust with an unspecified amount to fulfil other commitments over the next six years.

Due to obvious time constraints, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation’s board and corporate 'advisers' need to have a detailed financial and project action plan for 2018-19 immediately - if not sooner.

I suspect that I am not alone in waiting for waste of resources, duplication of effort, poorly targeted projects, lack of verifiable outcomes and other instances of  mismanagement to emerge over time, given the slapdash way this grant was put together.

Australian Government, GrantConnect:

Grant Award View - GA9190

GA ID: GA9190

Agency: Department of the Environment and Energy

Approval Date: 20-Jun-2018

Publish Date: 12-Jul-2018

Category: Natural Resources - Conservation and Protection

Grant Term: 27-Jun-2018 to 30-Jun-2024

Value (AUD): $487,633,300.00 (GST inclusive where applicable)

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Ad hoc/One-off: Yes

Aggregate Grant Award: No

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PBS Program Name: DoTE 17/18 Program 1.1: Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and the Environment

Grant Program: Reef Trust

Grant Activity: Reef Trust grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation

Purpose: The project will deliver activities which are consistent with the purposes of the Reef Trust Special Account Determination to achieve the Reef Trust Objectives and assist to protect the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

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Internal Reference ID: 100000001841

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Confidentiality - Contract: Yes

Confidentiality Reason(s) - Contract: Other:  Aspects of the Co-Financing Plan and the Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Plan 

Confidentiality - Outputs: No

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Grant Recipient Details

Recipient Name: Great Barrier Reef Foundation

Recipient ABN: 82 090 616 443

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Grant Recipient Location

Suburb: Brisbane

Town/City: Brisbane

Postcode: 4000

State/Territory: QLD

Country: AUSTRALIA

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Grant Delivery Location

State/Territory: QLD

Country: AUSTRALIA

Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Energy - Marine:

Grant Agreement Between the Reef Trust and Great Barrier Reef Foundation (June 2018)

Third Sector, 7 June 2018:

The Great Barrier Reef Foundation (GBRF) has confirmed one of its board directors will step down as he faces criminal charges for cartel conduct.

Stephen Roberts, an investment banker and GBRF board director, has been charged by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for allegedly playing a part of a criminal cartel during a $2.5 billion deal.

ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims, said: “These serious charges are the result of an ACCC investigation that has been running for more than two years.”

The charges, which included other banking chief executives and senior staff, were laid by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and will be determined in court.

Criminal charges relating to an alleged cartel by Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and the ANZ have been formally laid in relation to alleged cartel arrangements relating to trading in ANZ shares following a $2.5 billion institutional share placement in August 2015.