The NSW Labor Party has pledged to overhaul the grants process to restore integrity and public faith if elected in March, in the wake of the scathing findings of the Auditor General’s report examining the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLER) funding grants.
The report revealed that none of the funds approved under the fast-track arm of BLER went to Labor-held seats and that the grant process lacked integrity, with the assessment process short on transparency and consistency.
The Central Coast’s Labor MPs and candidate for Terrigal Sam Boughton said a Labor Government would place pork-barrelling protections in the law.
A statutory regulation to deal with guidelines for grant funding would ensure that: all grant programs have a designated decisionmaker, clear, transparent and public guidelines and eligibility criteria; and that a inister (or other decision-maker) who approves or declines a grant must record the decision in writing, including the reasons for the decision, they said.
“This approach is in line with Recommendation 1 of the ICAC Report Investigation into Pork Barrelling in NSW,” they said.
“The Government has refused to adopt this approach, instead publishing a Premier’s memorandum.”
They said a Labor Government would ensure that for any future disaster relief grants, all grant details would be forwarded to the Auditor General within three months from the date of approval.
“Any future fast track disaster funding grants would be considered high risk grants under the grants framework and the Auditor-General would be required to conduct regular performance audits in relation to them,” they said.
Again, this is consistent with Recommendation 21 of the ICAC report.
Shadow Minister for the Central Coast and Member for Wyong David Harris said disaster recovery funding should not be politicised and Member for Swansea Yasmin Catley said a Labor Government would “end the rorts and enshrine in legislation protections against pork-barrelling”.
Member for Gosford Liesl Tesch said it was very disappointing that legislation was needed to protect against the mismanagement of public funds.
“Our community has had a gutful of the Government’s disgraceful practice of giving millions in taxpayer money to their pet projects at the expense of our community,” she said.
Source:
Media release, Feb 8
Central Coast Labor MPs